A day in the life of a Grim Reaper
by dustytiger
Summary: Geroge starts to live in her afterlife to the fullest, developing a great romance, and a new relationship with her sister in the proccess
1. part 01

TITLE: A Day in the Life of a Grim Reaper; Behind the Cloak and Sickle (Part1of30)  
  
AUTHOR: trista  
  
DISCLAIMER: these characters do not belong to me, they belong to MGM, Showtime, the creator of Dead Like me, and the actors who portray them, please don't sue me, not that I have any money or anything you'd want!  
  
RATING: PG-13 (for language, but the kids these days…)CONTENT: Reggie/Millie friendship, Mason/George UST  
  
SUMMARY: George, or should I say Millie has a convo with Reggie at a park, and since I couldn't write my first DLM story without a soul popping Mason and George have to take the souls of a couple, some strangeness ensues.  
  
AUTHORS NOTES: there may be some illusions up to season one's "My room" I don't think there are any blatant spoilers. This is just something I whipped to together, if you wanna post it somewhere keep my name on it, tell me where it's going at rockchicktristasympatico.ca thnx  
  
Jesus Christ it's ridiculous the lengths I have to go to get some quiet time. Once I got used being alone I really started to like it, and then hurricane Daisy happened, and I can't even be comfortable in my own home. I guess I could find a new little place, but dammit I like the place I have, I'm used to, and for fuck's sake I don't want another thing in my life to chance. Why can't I tell her that? Why? Why? Why?  
  
So here I am in this little park that I loved to go to when I was a kid. I'm not really sure why my mom ever took me here, but after Reggie was born we never really came back. Its not like there is much to do here, a sandbox and some swings but I loved this place so much. I like here now cause no one ever comes here, maybe that's what I liked about it then, I don't know.   
  
There's just something about swinging that makes you come back to your childhood, and somehow right now that is something that is making me feel better. Strange when I was alive, or whatever, I tried to avoid remembering my childhood, and now all I want to do is go back and ask my mother a million questions. But that'll never happen, God why did I think that I could go back? If only I had played my cards right, maybe somehow I could have them in my life again. I don't even want them as my family anymore. I just want to get to know them so that I can understand life again.  
  
I stopped swinging a while ago, I've learned that when you get older you can't swing for so long without getting a feeling you're going to yak. Besides the idea of going over the bar is much more frightening now that it doesn't seem so impossible. I just have this picture of me falling on my head, and dying. Of course I can't die, but just the idea of falling on my head is not exactly appealing. Besides even if I did fall on my head I'd probably have wheel over to rooms in the hospital to pop souls or something.   
  
Why is it that I've been sitting on a swing for half an hour, by myself? If anyone were around they would have had me committed by now thinking I was mental. Maybe I should bring a pen next time and pretend to write, or maybe I could actually write, keep a journal. I can just picture it now, "Life as a Grim Reaper, Behind the cloak and Sickle" by Georgia Lass, wait I'd probably have to use a penname cause Millie doesn't seem to be the type to keep a journal, plus I'm not really sure what Deloros would do if she found out I was a reaper.   
  
Rube would probably pissed too, he never said I couldn't write a book. I'm sure somewhere in those rules of being a reaper that I never got to see its there "Reapers cannot write books, it would freak people out."  
  
Just when I was starting to get comfortable. Well as comfortable as you can get with their ass going numb from sitting on a swing, I saw a little kid coming toward the swings. Well she wasn't really that little, Reggie's age. When I realized that was Reggie part of me wanted to bolt, cause I knew if Rube found out he'd flip. But it wasn't like I went to her, she's coming to the same place as I happen to be. I didn't plan it, I didn't even know she knew of this place. It's not like she'll even talk to me or anything, she doesn't even know me. She sat down on the swing next to me. Strange she'd pick that one when there were five others free, but I though nothing of it and went back to what I was doing, nothing.  
  
"Hi," she said.   
  
I was kind of surprised when I heard her speak. I had forgotten what her voice sounded like, not that I listened to her much when I had the chance. I couldn't figure out why she was talking to me, but I knew that even it was something fleeting at least this way I would have the chance to have a conversation with my sister.  
  
"Uh, hi," I replied.  
  
"Am I interrupting you or something?"  
  
"No, I'm just, well sitting here."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Cause I like to be alone."  
  
"Oh…" Reggie stood up to leave.  
  
I took her wrist, gently, hoping not to scare her. "You can stay, you were the little girl at the house where I went to return the Frankenfruity doll, aren't you?"  
  
"Yeah, Joy would be pretty mad if she knew I was talking to you."  
  
"You call her Joy is she your stepmother or something?"  
  
"No, she's my mom. I just don't like her all that much."  
  
"I didn't like my mother much when I was about your age. I regret it now though."  
  
"You're like my sister's age, how can you have such a big regret?"  
  
"I can't see my mom anymore, actually I can't really see all my family anymore."  
  
"Oh, I'd be happy if I didn't have to see them."  
  
"You don't know what you want until its taken away."  
  
"Maybe. So what's your name anyway?"  
  
"Everyone calls me Millie," I replied. It was still odd not telling people that my name was George, but I certainly couldn't tell Reggie of all people my real name. "What's your name?"  
  
"Reggie."  
  
I didn't know what to say to her then. She was my sister, and I had to address her like a stranger on the street. I wanted to tell her that I was her sister, hoping that somehow that would make her better, though I'm pretty sure that if someone like Millie said to her she was her sister she'd probably need even more therapy. I wanted to tell her that I was sorry that I never paid attention to her, and that even though I didn't really knew her I miss her. Most of all I didn't want her to turn into me, I wanted her to live. I didn't want her to never know what love was. I wanted her to know that her family does care about her.   
  
So what if my parents had never intended for her to be a part of their lives. She was put in their lives for a reason, and I didn't want them to fail her as well. She needed them more then I had. But what was I supposed to say to her. She's a kid, I can't tell her the truth, and yet when she looked at me it was almost as if she could see something in me that was different from anyone she knew.   
  
I had to think of something to say to her, I didn't want her to leave. "So you said you have a sister, what's her name?"  
  
"George, but she's dead."  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry."   
  
Isn't there a better word in the English language then "sorry" when someone looses someone. "Sorry" is something you say when you step on someone's foot, or accidentally drop paint on them. There should be another word you can say to someone who is dealing with the pain of loosing a family member or friend. Something more then sorry is something that a graveling should say when he drops a piano, or a sign, or a toilet seat on your head.   
  
Before I knew what was going on my mouth opened and began to talk. "Seems like a pretty stupid word to be saying at a time like this don't you think?"  
  
She laughed. "Yeah it is, sorry is something you say when you get caught doing something you shouldn't, and you feel bad. Or you make a mistake like kicking them, or calling them the wrong name, or something that people should say when then call you a name."  
  
"Yeah, I know how you feel. You'd think with all the thousands of words people have made up over the years they'd think up something a little more then sorry when it comes to something big."  
  
"People are just stupid I guess."  
  
What was a seven year old thinking like that for? "You're pretty young to be so jaded."  
  
"You'd be jaded too if no one in your family liked you."  
  
"Maybe they do like you, they just don't understand you. That's what it was like with my little sister. It's not that I didn't like her, it's just that I never got to know her. I know I should have, but when she first came home I was mad at my mom for having to pay so much attention to her when I needed her. Then after a few years its hard to get out of that mind frame. You know what I mean?"  
  
"I think so, but it still doesn't make it right."  
  
"No, it doesn't, but everyone only thinks of themselves, they don't see how their actions effect people around them. It's a ripple effect." Fuck I was sounding like Rube, but I think she was starting to understand what I was telling her, and a few things Rube has told me along the way.  
  
"I understand what you mean completely. What was your sister like?"  
  
"To be honest I have no idea, and that pisses me off, a lot. I mean I had seven years to get to know her, and I didn't, and now that I want to I can't."  
  
"I wanted to be just like my sister. I don't know why, cause she wasn't very nice to me, but she seemed pretty happy, and really cool."  
  
"Really!" Shit I almost blew my cover. "Sorry, you just remind me of her, and I'm reacting the way I would have if she had told me that I was cool." This lying thing gets confusing after a while. Although I wasn't really lying, other then saying that Reggie isn't my sister. Which she isn't because I'm Millie, not George.   
  
"It's all right, you kind of remind me of my sister."  
  
"Funny how the universe works sometimes, but I need to get going, it was nice talking to you, Reggie." I could almost see Betty saying something like that to someone just before she popped their soul. A part of me still misses her, I think I always will.   
  
"Nice talking to you too, Millie, maybe we'll see each other again?"  
  
"I'm here a lot, maybe we'll run into each other again."  
  
She nodded, and I knew that somehow Millie and Reggie would somehow be closer the George and Reggie would ever be. I just hoped there wouldn't be repercussions for this too. I'm not trying to get my old life back, I'm trying to get a new life, and I'm trying to help my little sister. If I had to be undead I wanted to make the most of it. I looked down at the yellow post it note in my hand. Strange that the soul I needed to take today was right near somewhere that I love to hang out. I looked at ETD, and I still had ten minutes before the M. LaBelle. When I looked at the location again, I realized that this poor guy was going to die in his apartment, which sucks for him cause I can't pick a lock to save my life. Where's Mason when you need him.  
  
"What are you doin' here?" I heard a familiar voice with a nice accent say.  
  
Oh, Mason, dear Mason, I could kiss your lock picking ass right about now. "What do you think I'm doing here? I just like to fucking stand around shittier buildings then mine wondering if maybe this is what I would have to stoop to to get away from Daisy." Not exactly the way to charm a guy into picking a lock for you.  
  
He laughed, of course. "Bitter little bugger today aren't we?"  
  
I smiled. "So where are you headed."  
  
"Apparently T. LaBelle is set to die in apartment 53-" He looked at his watch.  
  
I cut him off. "In nine minutes now."  
  
"Yeah, that's it! Seems that we're a team today George."  
  
"Great, so any thoughts on how we might get into the apartment?"  
  
"Well, if it's at a party that these two or going to die then we just waltz right in and act casual. If we don't hear any strange sounds I will pick the lock and assume they are dead, and take their souls. If we here cop needed noises, we walk ourselves back down here and wait till the medics drag them past."  
  
"And then what?"  
  
"Well first lets see which of the scenarios we have, let's not get too ahead of ourselves."  
  
I rolled my eyes. He grabbed my hand and we followed another guy into the building when he opened the door. He looked at us suspiciously.   
  
"Hey, mate," Mason said. "My girl and I are thinking about moving in here, all we can afford with our parents kicking us out, you know how it is, and we like to see a little bit before we rush into things." "Wish I'd done that," the guys said. "Let me give you a word of advise anywhere is better then here."  
  
"Thanks, but we like to find out for ourselves don't we honey?" He wrapped his arm around my shoulder .  
  
"Yeah," I said unsure of myself. If he kisses me I swear to god he will not know what hit him, we walked down the hall and he let go of me. "You're too good at this, you know that?"  
  
"I've been doin' this too long. Well here we are!"  
  
"You fucking slut!!" we heard a male voice scream.  
  
"These walls don't give much privacy do they?" I asked, not even realizing till after that I had lowered my voice from before.  
  
"Yeah, I think it's a fair bet to say that these two love birds are going to kill themselves."  
  
I nodded, "lets take off before we somehow get involved."  
  
"Good plan."  
  
The guy from before was at his door. "They're always like, they're not the scariest thing in the building!" He called to them as they existed the building.  
  
"So now what?" I asked.  
  
"Well first we wait for cops, I'd say across the street, then when we see them we get a little closer, then when we see an ambulance we get closer to the building, maybe act like a couple. See what happens and hope to hell we get the right people, cause it'll look a lot odd if we both touch both bodies."  
  
"Yeah, I'd imagine."  
  
"I've had it happen once, you know?"  
  
"What happen?"  
  
"That I was with someone else, and in front of all these people we both had to go over to each body and see who had which soul. We got the wrong one and ended up both patting these two people on the shoulder and then walking away. The cops were yelling at us or something but we just kept walking with these people who had no clue what had just happened. They were banging up against a window and the screen broke, and they fell or some shit, how embarrassing."  
  
What a way to go, I swear the people in this division had seen it all. We walked across the street, Reggie seemed to have gone, and we sat down on the lawn at the park. Mason and I didn't really do the small talk thing much anymore. I don't really know why, we get along when we're forced to be together, but I never have the urge to do anything with at any other time. Though he has been hanging out at my apartment more since Daisy's been there. The guy just don't take a hint, she's not interested in him.   
  
She likes the clean cut, pretty-boy types, and that most certainly isn't Mason. I'd put him as a bad-boy, but that doesn't seem right, more like a starving artist. Almost a rock star-boy, yeah I could totally see Mason on MTV smashing his guitar.  
  
"What are you thinking?" he asked all of a sudden.  
  
"Nothing," I lied.  
  
"Strange, I can never stop thinking. I try to, but there's always this annoying little voice babbling on and on in my head. It usually doesn't even say anything useful. Certainly didn't say anything to stop me the day I died. That was pretty stupid, don't you think? You'd think that voice in your head would tell you that this is a bad idea and to just stop it."  
  
"You would think that wouldn't you?"  
  
"Makes you think don't it? I'm getting a headache."  
  
"So what were you thinking about, before started thinking about thinking?"  
  
"About how I'm not really a breast man, and I wonder if that makes me gay."  
  
"Mason you're not gay."  
  
"Well how do you know?"  
  
"The way you've been lusting after Daisy may be one indication."  
  
"Maybe you're right. I hear sirens."  
  
"Well they were supposed to die about three minutes ago."  
  
We watched the scene play out across the street, a couple minutes after the cop car pulled up an ambulance pulled, what a surprise. So we walked back across the street, and Mason placed us right in front of the doorway, where we would sure to be in the way. He put his arm around my waist, and all of a sudden we were making out. A few moments later we were interrupted when two very angry paramedics asked us to move as they wheeled to stretchers out of the building.   
  
Quiet the crowd had gathered, as we separated, and I touched the first guy's foot, making it look as if I had tripped over my own foot by mistake and took his soul. I was glad that some higher power had at least let me get the right guy. He put his arm around my waist, and two very confused souls followed us to the park across the street.   
  
"What the hell is going on!?" asked the man.   
  
"Well," said Mason. "You're dead."  
  
He had a way with telling people that, so, blunt. "We don't need to tell you how it happened," I said.  
  
"So who the hell are you!?" the man demanded.  
  
"We're grim reapers, we're here to help you to your final destination."  
  
"Where are you cloaks?"  
  
"Do we look like a cliché?" I asked.  
  
"So what now?"  
  
"Well you have to move on."  
  
"I'm dead that's great can I move on now?" asked the woman, breaking her silence.   
  
"Well you have to wait, you'll know when its time," I explained.  
  
"Am I going to hell for killing her?" the man asked.  
  
"I don't know, I'm just a messenger," we both said at the same time.  
  
Just then a strange looking heart shaped, I don't know what the fuck it was appeared in front of us, and the two of them, who had joined hands, and walked into it together. Go figure some people, I just don't get it, the guy kills her, and then himself to not get any jail time and they decide they want to spend whatever comes next together.   
  
So now, here I am in bed, replaying the day. What a day! That whole thing with the chick leaving with the guy that killed her is odd, but I've been told that love is blind, and apparently stupid. But that's not what's really getting to me it was that after all that Mason just said "we'll do that again all right, sweetie?" and walked away. Sweetie, why the hell would Mason call me sweetie? The whole thing with Reggie then pops into my head, and it just becomes a vicious circle, and I can't sleep cause I can't turn my brain off. What the hell is going to happen tomorrow. I hate my afterlife.  
  
End  
  
end notes: this is open to a sequel feedback will determine if it happens, I have some ideas, so tell me what you think, I can take criticism as long as you backup your opinion trista, the dustytiger 


	2. part 02

TITLE: A Day in the Life of a Grim Reaper; Behind the Cloak and Sickle (Part2of30)  
  
AUTHOR: trista  
  
DISCLAIMER: these characters do not belong to me, they belong to MGM, Showtime, the creator of Dead Like me, and the actors who portray them, please don't sue me, not that I have any money or anything you'd want!  
  
RATING: PG-13 (for language, but the kids these days…)  
  
CONTENT: Reggie/Millie friendship, Mason/George UST  
  
SUMMARY: Mason admits that the events of the day before were not strictly professional, causing George a personal dilemma, acting older then her age Reggie helps "Millie" with a boy at work problem   
  
AUTHORS NOTES: this is the sequel to "A Day in the Life of a Grim Reaper; … (Part1?) posted under "my first attempt at a DLM fanfic" first sorry about taking so long to write this, I've been super busy the last week organizing a party, and only had time to sit down and write a few paragraphs a day, read the first part if you haven't already cause this won't make sense else wise! Hope you all enjoy, and I'm really trying to keep this from being a sappy romance fic the only way I can  
  
"Have a hard time sleeping last night, Peanut?" Rube asked.  
  
I looked up, kind of surprised. "Yeah, I had something on my mind," I replied.  
  
"A boy?" Daisy inquired.  
  
"Not exactly."   
  
If fate had wanted to kick me in the ass, Mason would have walked in at that exact moment. Well maybe fate has finally stopped being such a bitch, no Mason, and better yet no work today. Happy Time work anyway. Daisy, Rube and I were at our regular table at Der Waffle Haus. Roxy was absent, surprise, surprise, and Mason was nowhere to be found either. He was probably in a gutter twitching somewhere, having mixed the wrong drugs with the wrong substances. Why am I even remotely, strangely, drawn to that man?   
  
Rube was about to say something when our food arrived. Daisy had her usual cottage cheese, fruit and whatever wheat substance medley. Rube had eggs, toast, jam, and hash browns, all cooked a certain odd way that I'd be afraid if actually remembered. These people probably cringe when they see Rube and Daisy walk in. I could almost imagine them in the back flipping coins to decide who had to deal with them on any given day.   
  
I had a chocolate milkshake, cause I had been craving one for quiet some time. I began playing with my straw. As I did that remembered when I was kid one of my friends showing me the fun way to drink a milkshake. My mom freaked at me when she saw me do it, and I never did it again. Something came over me, and I decided to plug my straw with my finger, lift out the straw, lick the shake around the straw; then tilt my head back, and drop the contents of the straw on my tongue. Daisy and Rube both gave me funny looks, and I did it again.  
  
"That's unattractive Georgia!" Daisy said.  
  
"Peanut, it looks like something Freud would have written about," Rube commented.  
  
Freud would have a field day with me, I began to think. Honestly, I have an obsession with playing with straws, that right there is cause for concern. I'm not in love with my father or anything, but the playing with straws thing, and the liking a drink better through a straw. Now Daisy, that is someone who needs to talk to Freud to figure out why she's so obsessed with sexual things.  
  
"Freudians make for lousy lovers, I've dated a couple, they analyze everything. I'm a very hands on kind of gal, that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with me," Daisy proceeded to explain. Why must she share everything about her sexual past with everyone?  
  
"You wouldn't happen to know where Mason is would you?" Rube asked, nothing ever seemed to phase him, just once I'd love to see him flip his wig.  
  
"Frankly I wouldn't mind if that guy was under a bus, and I wish it could get him out of my hair. Honestly the nerve of some people!"  
  
"Did he try to pick you up again?"  
  
"Yeah, well it's just not going to happen I don't care how horny we both are, I don't touch things like him!"  
  
I shook my head. "I have no idea where he is, haven't seen him since yesterday."  
  
"How did that go anyway?" Rube asked with his mouth full. Now THAT is unattractive.   
  
"It went all right, he's good at blending in. We pretended we were a couple looking for a place. We got done what we had to."  
  
"Ah, well he seems to be AWAL, and since you're not working today Peanut you can give him this." He handed me two post-its. "The bottom one's yours."  
  
"Why can't Daisy do it? I like my days off, I had something planned!"  
  
"Well, Georgia I have more important things to do today, my skin doesn't get like this all by itself. I need to find a new tanning salon."  
  
I nodded. "Have fun then."  
  
It wasn't really that I had anything to do, I was planning on spending the day like always do, lifting a soul, and then just relaxing. Its nice to be away from Happy Time, and all the crazy happy people. It wasn't that my day would be ruined waiting for Mason, it's just that I wasn't sure what to say to him. There was safety in numbers, and the numbers were leaving. After all most of the things that kept me up were in my head anyway. Nothing yesterday really meant anything. He was just doing his job. It was like acting or something. Daisy was gone, but Rube was still sitting there giving me a funny look.  
  
"What!?" I asked.  
  
"Well I just think you're keeping something for me is all," he explained.  
  
"Why don't you trust me?"  
  
"You've never given me a reason to trust you. So what happened yesterday?"  
  
"It was nothing while we were waiting for the medics to bring the bodies out, cause we couldn't get into the apartment, we kissed. You know to blend in, it was nothing, just part of the job, I guess."  
  
"With Mason you never do know, but kissing girls is certainly not something he does as just part of his job." With that Rube got up and walked away, throwing down a some money to cover his and Daisy's food.  
  
Just great, just when I finally have myself believing that it was nothing Rube has to go and fuck it all up! I wanted to go somewhere to think for a while. Somewhere that didn't smell like eggs, pancakes and coffee. But I knew I couldn't really go anywhere cause I had to give good old Mason his stupid post-it. I mean really a post-it you would think that they would have another way of informing us what we had to do. You'd think that if we didn't show up it wouldn't be the least busiest person's job to wait for someone to show up. What happened if Mason just didn't show up at all?   
  
I nursed my milkshake for about half an hour, I really wanted to eat something else for a change, since it was my day off and I could. A few minutes are I finished my shake Mason sauntered into the restaurant. He went right over to where I was sitting, looking as if it wasn't a big deal that he was running late. He then did something really odd, especially for Mason. He kissed me on the cheek, before sitting down next to me.  
  
"Hi, Sweetie!" he said, almost chipper.  
  
"Sweetie?" asked giving him a strange look.  
  
"You know, yesterday?"  
  
"Yesterday? Yesterday was just work."  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry you feel that way. Which one is mine?"  
  
"The top one."He took his post-it. "Thanks Georgie Girl." He then left the place, looking dejected.  
  
Part of me wanted run after him, and tell him the truth. That I didn't think that yesterday had been just work. That I had stayed up all night thinking about what had happened and what it had mean. But another part of me knew that if I ran after him it would be signing a deal which lead to me loosing him. I had already lost so much and I couldn't bare to loose him. I lost my family, and although I didn't think that I cared about them before hand when they were gone I really missed them. I think part of it's because I can see them and I know who they are, but they don't know who I am; and then never can.   
  
After realizing that if I tried too hard to get my family back I would loose the precious few memories I had of them, I tried to make a friend. But she had to go and piggy back ride with an Irishman, and she left me too. She left me with a few great memories. But I still miss her, a lot. I just wish I knew what happened to Betty. I didn't exactly care about Ronnie or anything, he was crazy, but he did see me for who I was and I would have liked to have gotten to know him better. But work got in the way, and I did what I had to do.   
  
So you can see where the train of the thought on the Mason thing is going. If I did decide to just throw caution to the wind, chances are I'd loose him. For whatever reason I cannot even bare to think about losing him, so we're both just have to deal with being quasi-friends. I hoped I didn't crush the guy too much. He's been around a few times, I'm sure he'll bounce right back.   
  
I left Der Waffle Haus, and was thinking about the whole Mason situation, and somehow, almost on auto-pilot I ended up at the park I had been to the day before where, I, or Millie, had talked to Reggie only a day before. I sat down on the swing, and just sat there, I'm not really sure for how long, but I totally zoned out. I didn't even hear anyone coming to sit beside me, until a hand waved in front of my face. I was too busy thinking about what had happened with Mason.  
  
"Earth to Millie!" Reggie said.  
  
I snapped out of it, and in my state I almost told Reggie to get lost, as I would have when I was alive. "Hey Reggie, I didn't think I'd be seeing you so soon."  
  
"Me either." She admitted.  
  
"What brings you out today?"  
  
"Just needed to think, and I'm not comfortable in my usual spot since my mom found it."  
  
"Oh, how do you know your mom doesn't know about here?"  
  
"Like she'd ever hang around here, it's kinda dirty, and grungy looking, not a place Joy would like at all."  
  
Joke's on her, Mom had been there plenty of times with me. I guess she really did care, cause come to think of it this place was pretty dilapidated , and not a place she'd usually want to be within arms reach of. But I loved this place, and for a while we were going once a week. I really did miss times like that with my mom, but there is no going back, sadly.  
  
I smiled. "Yeah, to each her own, this place is so quiet and stuff, I don't really care that it looks like it had its best days long before I was born."  
  
Reggie smiled too. "So why are you here?"  
  
"Just had something on my mind and I ended up here."  
  
"Anything you wanna talk about? I'm only eleven, but I always listen when someone comes to me with a problem."  
  
Another thing I didn't know about my little sister, she had the ear of a shrink, and she was only eleven. I felt kind of odd talking to her about a problem that she would not face for years, but somehow just letting it out, and telling someone who was beyond removed from the situation helped.  
  
"It's just this guy at work, we're kind of confused as to what we are to each other. Just friends, or something more."  
  
"Oh, that can't be fun. Is he the guy you were talking to yesterday? I saw you with someone as I was leaving."  
  
"Yeah, that's him, something happened after we talked, and I don't know I just don't think I want to be anything more then friends with him."  
  
"Well you have to tell him how you feel, else you'll not even have him as a friend."  
  
That was damn good advise coming from an eleven year old. I guess she had done a lot of growing up recently. I never even noticed but at times it was as if Reggie didn't really have a childhood. From the time she started school she tried to act like me. I wondered how she fit in at school, if the kids picked on her for being different. I almost felt sorry for her, because when she got older she may regret that she never really had the opportunity to have a childhood. I also wished I had told her when I had had the chance to just have fun and be a kid while you can still get away with it. Reggie and I weren't all that different I learned.  
  
"Don't you go to school?" I asked her suddenly.  
  
"When I feel like it."  
  
Geez, I hadn't gotten into that phase until high school. "Why not, don't you like school?"  
  
"It's not school I hate, it's the people there. I mean sure I can handle myself, I always have been able to, but it just gets hard sometimes. I don't like having to face all these people who think I'm weird every single day. I know I'm different, but they don't have to rub it in. I wish they would just try and ask me why I act the way I do rather then assume that it's because I don't like them."  
  
I sighed, I wanted to cry. All of a sudden I was afraid that one day I'd get her post-it, and find her dead at her own hand. "Maybe you've just been talking to the wrong kids?"  
  
"I really don't know."  
  
"You just have to find someone that you can connect with. Once you find that person then nothing else matters really."  
  
"Have you found your friend like that?"  
  
"Yeah, and I lost her, but I'm glad that we had the time we did have together."  
  
She smiled. "I think I'm going to go back to school regularly, and find my friend like that."  
  
I smiled, relieved. I knew that somehow she'd be all right. "Don't forget about your mysterious friend."  
  
Reggie laughed. "I'll make you less mysterious one of these days Millie. I know that there's something you're not telling me and I'm going to find out what that is."  
  
"Maybe the mystery is what's keeping us friends."  
  
"Maybe, well I've gotta go, you know I still have half a day of school left."  
  
"I think Joy'll be glad you're back."  
  
"Me too, but I'm not gonna tell her why I'm back."  
  
"Well have fun at school, and if you ever need any help with your homework ask me."  
  
"I'll hold you to that, bye Millie." She then ran off.   
  
I was glad that I finally had some kind of relationship with my sister, I just hoped that I would not get in trouble for it. I looked down at my post it, there was still about an hour before D. L. Moore was going to die at a place about half an hour from where I was, in the opposite direction of home, of course. I walked toward where I had to be, which was a mall food court, which was perfect cause while I was waiting I could get a lovely non-Der Waffle Haus meal! I went to one of those teriyaki places, and sat down and ate, looking for clues as to the identity of D. E. Moore.  
  
As I was finishing my meal a rough looking guy stood in front of me. He handed me a card.   
  
My name is Dennis-Elliot, I am a deaf mute, selling these cards so I can eat. Please donate whatever you can. THAT was easy. I gave him a dollar, and as I gave him the dollar I took his soul. He walked away, and I looked at my watch he had two minutes to live. He wondered outside and started giving the sheets to people who were waiting for the traffic light to change, so they could cross the street.  
  
He was following a person when the guy suddenly began to run across the street. Poor Dennis-Elliot must have really been deaf as he didn't hear the ambulance that hit him with its sirens blaring he was hit. A crowd gathered in the street, and I went outside and before I even got outside he had crossed over. I wondered if when he died he got his hearing back. I had more important things to think about as I walked back to my apartment.  
  
end  
  
End notes: well I made a sequel, and have an idea for a third installment, but I luv feedback so without it the next idea gets 86-ed! trista aka the dusty tiger 


	3. part 03

TITLE: A Day in the Life of a Grim Reaper; Behind the Cloak and Sickle (Part3of30)  
  
AUTHOR: trista  
  
DISCLAIMER: these characters do not belong to me, they belong to MGM, Showtime, the creator of Dead Like me, and the actors who portray them, please don't sue me, not that I have any money or anything you'd want! The song featured in this fic is not mine either and belongs to Peppersands, SOCAN and their label.  
  
RATING: PG-13 (for language, but the kids these days…)  
  
CONTENT: Reggie/Millie friendship, Mason/George UST  
  
SUMMARY: Rube tells George she's going out of town with Mason, Reggie tells Millie she is back at school, George hears a song in a club that makes her think of Mason (THIS IS NOT A SONG FIC!!)  
  
AUTHORS NOTES: this is the sequel to "A Day in the Life of a Grim Reaper; … (Part1?) posted under "my first attempt at a DLM fanfic" and "A day … Part2 (posted as such) it prolly won't make much sense if you haven't read the first two. I decided to leave the band unnamed so you can all think that they are ur fave band rather then mine. Peppersands is one of my fave bands based in Vancouver produced by Dave Genn (ex Matt Good Band) for more info go to This is my first non-half assessed attempt at a soul reaping.  
  
Surprisingly today everyone was at the Der Waffle Haus, Roxy included, and we were all waiting for Rube to show up. I wondered where he was, it was unlike Rube to be late.   
  
"I bet he went on a bender last night and is so hung over he can't wake up," Mason suggested.   
  
"No, Mason, that's you!" Roxy snapped. "I've had to haul your wasted ass out of bed when you had work to do a couple of times."  
  
Daisy and I laughed. About five minutes after we all ate Rube showed up. He looked like he had just rolled out of bed, I didn't think Rube could do the just rolled out of bed look, but there he was with disheveled hair and everything. I wanted to laugh but I'm sure under the bed head he still had the same Rube attitude.   
  
"I slept in," he informed us.   
  
I was surprised when Roxy didn't say "no shit!" But I think we all knew that it was a bad time to get under his skin. There was probably a damn good reason why he slept in, and he didn't want to share it with us. He handed us each our post it notes. We all went to leave.  
  
"Mason, George," he said. "I need to talk to you."  
  
We both sat back down, as Roxy and Daisy left, pretty quickly I might add. George? Rube never called me George, something really strange must be going on I don't remember him ever calling me anything but "Peanut" even when I was in a lot of trouble. I couldn't think of anything I had done wrong of late. I was really trying not to piss him off. I started to play with the straw from an empty drink that was in front of me.  
  
"You're not in any trouble, you two have to go out of town for a few days," Rube informed us. "Mason procure a car, I'll give you all your post-its, they're all in the same place. Come back when all the souls have crossed over." He handed us each a huge stack of post-its, and then walked away.   
  
"Well Georgie, it seems it's just you and me for the next few days," Mason said with a Cheshire cat grin.  
  
"I'm late for work." I walked away, and I didn't even look back to see the look on his face.  
  
I got to work, a little bit early. I had to think of an excuse as to why I needed to go out of town for a few days. I decided that the best way was to say I had to go to a funeral, I wasn't exactly lying. I actually worked really hard all morning until Delores walked by.   
  
"Delores, I need to talk to you," I said.  
  
"What's going on Millie?" she asked.  
  
"I really hate to do this to you, but something things just cannot be avoided. I have to go out of town for a funeral for a few days."  
  
"Oh, Millie, take all the time you need. Death is never easy."  
  
Don't I know it! If only she knew the half of it. "She was my aunt, we weren't overly close, but you know she was still my aunt. I'll do whatever extra I can today, you know to keep my mind off of it."  
  
"Oh, that's sweet of you Millie, but if you need to you can take the rest of the day off."  
  
"That won't be necessary, really I want to work so that I'm not sitting all alone at home today thinking about it."  
  
"Whatever you want, how are you getting there?"  
  
"A good friend is driving me, but he works today too, so I can't talk to him to make me feel better if I went home.   
  
Delores gave me one of her signature sympathy pouts. "If you need to talk just find me." I smiled. "I will, thank you."   
  
She then walked away. After work when I was done I went to the park to see if Reggie was around. I sat down on one of the swings, and within a few minutes she showed up.  
  
"Hey," we both said at the same time.   
  
"How was school today?" I asked.   
  
"It was all right, I guess," she answered.   
  
"Yeah, school's no fun, but you have to do it."  
  
"I know, it sucks."   
  
"Just try to look on the bright side." That sounded really lame. "On second thought I'm not sure that there is a bright side to school when you don't have many friends."  
  
Reggie laughed. "I'm going to try really hard to make friends."  
  
"Good for you! I guess I should tell you that I'm going out of town for a few days."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Work stuff."  
  
"That sucks, I'm sorry I can't stay long today, but I have homework to do, but when you get back I want to show you something."  
  
"All right, later then Reggie."   
  
I stayed at the park a little while longer, thinking about having to go away for a while with Mason, sometime on the way I knew that the reason I've been avoiding him would come up, and I just don't think I could lie to him. I wanted to but for some reason I knew that I wouldn't be able to. Why can't this be easy? I mean I was really good at telling guys to go fuck themselves when I was alive, and now that I'm undead the most annoying guy is after me and I can't tell him off.   
  
Why was I so afraid of loosing him? He's just a stupid pothead! I knew that I was only kidding myself thinking that Mason meant nothing to me at all. From the first time I met him I was drawn to him, and for whatever reason fate was forcing me to explore whatever feelings drew me to him. To get my mind off of Mason I looked at my post-it note, and realized that I had no idea where I had to go. I left the park in search of a phonebook.  
  
I looked at my post it note again when I got up to the building named "the Lucky Hen," what the hell kind of name is that anyway? I was expecting a restaurant bar and grill thing, instead I was standing in front of a rather dark looking music club. It could be worse it could have been a strip joint. The idea of going to a loud dark pit with a ton of other people never much appealed to me when I was alive. It still didn't much appeal to me especially since I was alone. Who the hell goes to places like this by themselves anyway? With all these people how would I know which one was the person who's soul I needed to take?  
  
I think it was the being along thing that got to me the most, especially considering the first time I was at a loud bar was with Betty, and I kind of felt more at ease with her there. I couldn't ask Daisy to go with me, it's not her scene, she thinks that music is a waste of talent when you can be an actress. Yes, I was that desperate I actually asked her. Normally I would have asked Mason, he would have fit in perfectly, but considering the circumstances of the whole kissing thing that didn't seem like a good idea.  
  
So I went and opened the door to the place and there was this guy sitting there. Mason had given me a fake ID for some reason, I was glad to have it now.   
  
"It'll be five dollars tonight, and can I see some ID please?" the bouncer asked.  
  
I wasn't pissed about the ID, cause he hardly looked at the thing, but no one said that I'd have to PAY to get into a place that I had to be to grab their soul! I gave him a five dollar bill, and he gave me back my ID.   
  
"Wait!" the guy said.   
  
"Huh?" I replied.   
  
"You need a stamp, give me our hand."  
  
I held out my hand and he moved it so that my palm was up and stamped my wrist. Why the hell are the people so fucking picky anyway? When I went to the washroom a little later, and washed my hands I figured out why. They didn't want people going in who said that their stamps had come off when really they had never been in in the first place. I got in and there was already a band on stage. Perhaps finding the person I was looking for may not be as hard as I had thought. The place was pretty empty there was no more then fifty people in there including staff, but nothing looked particularly suspicious. Although what does look strange in a dank music club? There was still twenty minutes before L. Penny was supposed to die.   
  
The band on stage were all right, not ever having seen a live band before I thought that they'd do more then just stand there. Then out of the corner of my eye I saw a graveling, creeping around two people. One was a guy and the other was a girl. They exchanged something, and the guy took off, I followed him, and he left the club, and he seemed to be moving pretty fast. Why would a graveling be hanging around a petty drug deal? I had to figure some way of talking to her, and touching her without looking like a perv.   
  
A few minutes later the band stopped playing, and the DJ started to play some music. I sat down and the girl was not to far from where I was sitting, she was standing against a wall, singing along to the songs. Then I heard one song that just kind of spoke to me.   
  
"Sometimes I wanna change you  
  
Sometimes it always seems to  
  
Sometimes I think you're so fine  
  
Sometimes I wanna change you  
  
Sometimes it always seems to  
  
Sometimes I think you're so fine   
  
So fine, so fine, so fine, so fine ow!  
  
Sometimes I wanna build you  
  
Say things that only hurt you   
  
I seem to do that all the time  
  
Sometimes I wanna build you  
  
Say things that are gonna hurt you  
  
I seem to do that all the time  
  
All the time, all the time  
  
All the time, all the time, yeah  
  
All I need is just one last fix of your unforgettable sunset kisses   
  
Now I'm back to the roll I promised you -  
  
I only wanted to hold you  
  
Forgetting everything I've told you that could give me away  
  
Oh hey! Don't get too carried away -  
  
Don't get too carried away  
  
I'm standing my ground my head in the ground  
  
Everything's floating away , oh no  
  
I'm standing my ground my head in the ground  
  
Everything's floating away   
  
I'm standing my ground my head in the ground -  
  
Don't get too carried away  
  
Away, away, away, away"  
  
It almost seemed to sum up everything that I was feeling about Mason, well kind of as much as a song about a living girl liking a living guy could appeal to and undead gal liking an undead guy. But just the way the girl acted was so like me, doing something that's uncharacteristic and then just then just shrugging it off. I wanted to know what song it was, I had to know what song it was. Then it hit me that I could kill two birds with one stone. I walked over to the girl who had been singing, and tapped her on the shoulder, and took her soul.   
  
"Sorry to bother you, but could tell me what song this is?" I almost had to scream to be heard.  
  
"It's called "So Fine" by a band called Peppersands!" she told me, louder then she probably needed.   
  
"Thanks."  
  
"They're a really good band, you should listen to more of their songs." "I'll have to remember that." I walked away. I was still curious about how that girl was going to die in less then fifteen minutes, but mine is not to question why.   
  
A few moments later I lost track of her, and I looked for her for a while, but soon got engrossed in the band that were on stage. They were really amazing, kind of loud, and energetic, and the few people there were freaking out and dancing. Between the time I got there and the second band went on the amount of people in the club close to doubled. I almost wanted to join in but L. Penny had died about five minutes ago and there was probably a very confused soul walking around the bar. Then out of the corner of my eye I saw her heading toward the dance floor, I didn't want her getting there cause there were so many people it may take some time for her dust particles to become a soul again.   
  
"Hey!" I said to her. "I didn't ask you your name."  
  
"It's Leslie, but everyone calls me Penny Lane."  
  
Like as in the Beatles song? Why the hell would anyone want their nickname to be a song? "All right then I'll call you Penny. I'm George."  
  
"You wanna know something, George?" She giggled.   
  
"What, Penny?" I played along.  
  
"I am on the worst trip EVER!"  
  
"Why do say that?"  
  
"Well I locked myself in a bathroom stall downstairs to sniff some shit, and when I was done it felt like I walked right through the bathroom door!" She was laughing madly at this point. "Then I don't remember unlocking the door. Cause I lock the whole bathroom so I won't get caught. And then I went to go get something to go with the coke and the bartender didn't even come over to me, and no one seemed to notice me standing there."  
  
"I hate to tell you this, but it's more then just a bad trip, it's your last trip."  
  
"Who are you? One of those like undercover angel people who help kids get off drugs?"  
  
"Not so much." Just then someone walked past me, and thru Penny, she turned to dust.  
  
When she came back she coughed. "What the fuck!?"  
  
"You Penny Lane, or whoever are dead."  
  
"Dead?"  
  
"Yeah, some poor person working at this bar is going to find you in that bathroom stall at some point tonight. I just took your soul when I knew that you were the right person so that I didn't have to wait around."  
  
"Dead? No way!"  
  
"I'm afraid so, and then soon you're going to move on."  
  
"Not without seeing this band first! After that how will I know?"  
  
"You'll just know."  
  
So I had to stand and watch that band play with the soul I had just popped, and worst of all she didn't just make me stand there, she made me dance. ME dance! I don't dance I look like a dumbass, but she told me that since she couldn't dance and I was her reaper fairy. Yes! She actually called me a reaper fairy! She told me that I had to do whatever she said so that she's actually move on, and that was dance and get into the show like she would have had she not had the slight handicap of being dead. It wasn't actually that bad, the band was really good, and I would have found it very heard not to move throughout their entire set.   
  
After the band finished their set they got offstage, and the crowd dispersed. Then over the real stage was another stage with three guys, all of them young and pretty hot; one with a guitar, one with a bass, and one behind a drum set, and the mic was empty. The three guys seemed to be motioning for her to come forward, she took a running start and then hoped up on stage, and took the mic, and then the apparition disappeared.  
  
That night I hardly slept thinking about having to go away with Mason for a few days. What am I going to say to him when he asks me why I've been ignoring him? Why must fate fuck so much with my afterlife?  
  
End notes: I have another idea that starts with something along the lines of; '"Georgie, why do you hate me?" Mason inquired giving a sad puppy dog face from the driver's seat.' I also have some ideas that will take bring the fic into its own not following the series. Tell me what 'ya think. trista aka the dustytiger 


	4. part 04

TITLE: A Day in the Life of a Grim Reaper; Behind the Cloak and Sickle (Part4of30)  
  
AUTHOR: trista  
  
DISCLAIMER: these characters do not belong to me, they belong to MGM, Showtime, the creator of Dead Like me, and the actors who portray them, please don't sue me, not that I have any money or anything you'd want!   
  
RATING: PG-13 (for language, but the kids these days…)  
  
CONTENT: Reggie/Millie friendship, Mason/George UST almost romance  
  
SUMMARY: George and Mason go out of town to pop the souls of some misguided cult members.  
  
AUTHORS NOTES: this is the fouth installment of the a day in the life series, why did I make the title so long?? If you haven't read the first three parts chances are this won't make any sense. There are no spoilers past at the latest "Sunday Mornings" though I'd say more like "My room" and I don't expect there will be as I seem to have created something that comes after "My room" and ignores the rest of what I have and will see. I whipped this one out quick so the next one will take a little longer, but I couldn't leave the cliffhanger hanging too long. Hehe each part is only one day if you haven't yet noticed  
  
"Georgie, why do you hate me?" Mason inquired giving a sad puppy dog face from the driver's seat.  
  
I knew that at some point the question would come, but I never thought it would be the first thing out of his mouth after I got into the car. Of course asking right off the bat would make for a long trip if I refused to answer the question. I didn't know how to answer the question, part of me wanted to tell him the truth, but most of me wanted to just resort to back to the easiest way to avoid getting hurt, lying.  
  
"I don't hate you Mason, it's just that I don't know if I like you like that," I answered.  
  
"How can you not know? Honestly Georgie, it's either yeah, you know what I think we can try and see what we can make of this, or no I don't think that there can ever be anything between us."  
  
"It's not that easy." I don't think I had convinced myself of that fact.  
  
"Sure it is! It's that easy, just tell me do you like me as more then a friend, or do you see me as your brother? I can handle either one, but I don't like us being in limbo!"  
  
"Mason! I don't know!"  
  
"You do know, and you don't want to tell me. What are you afraid of?"  
  
"Nothing!" I wanted to stick my tongue out at him, or give him the finger, but that would be juvenile and wouldn't accomplish much.  
  
"There is something that you're not telling me, and I'm going to get out of you if it kills me."  
  
"Whatever." I wanted to leave it at that but, again the silence for a long car trip didn't seem like such a good idea. Why couldn't Mason jack a car with a stereo system of some kind? "Besides Mason have the time you go around like a horny rabbit how do I know that I'm not just some flavour of the week?"  
  
"Well if someone would help me with certain things perhaps I'd be less horny!"  
  
"And if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it does it make a sound?"  
  
"What does that have to do with anything?"  
  
"I'm trying to use a metaphor dumbass!"  
  
"Being horny is like a tree?"  
  
I wanted to jump out of the moving car, I would have if it would make much difference. "Mason, how do you know that being in a real relationship will help? How do you know if whoever can keep up with you?"  
  
"I'm not an animal for fuck's sake! This is not helping, you are avoiding the question."  
  
"So what if I am."  
  
"I need an answer George, I thought we had shared something, and then you tell me that it was just work. I can't believe that that is your idea of work, and if it is you should quit your fucking day job and find a nice corner or strip joint. Cause I know I was feeling something even if you weren't."  
  
"Look Mason, so what if I felt something, it's just not going to work so just leave it be all right?"  
  
I looked down at my hands, and my throat began to hurt. I was NOT going to cry in front of Mason. I couldn't cry in front of him. I tried to tell myself a joke to make me laugh, but it didn't work, my throat just got more sore. Finally I gave in and started to cry, trying to be quiet. I looked out the window in hopes that he hadn't noticed.  
  
"Georgie are you crying?" Mason asked gently putting his hand on my shoulder.   
  
"No," I whispered with a sniffle.   
  
"You are crying! What are you crying about?"   
  
"Nothing! Leave me alone!"  
  
"We may not be lovers, but I hope that we are at least friends, and friends talk to friends."  
  
"I don't wanna to talk about it."  
  
He handed me a Kleenex. "Well when you feel like talking I can actually be a good listener."  
  
I took the Kleenex, and for a good half an hour we both just sat in the car silently. I was thinking about weather or not tell him, and what I should tell him. For reasons I don't think I could ever explain I was drawn to him, and a very big part of me wanted to be more then friends with him, but none of me wanted to loose him. I just cared for him so much I wanted him to be around for a large part of my afterlife. Then before I really realized it I was telling him how I felt.   
  
"Mason it's not that I don't want to be with you or anything," try as I may I couldn't shut myself up. "It's just that so far in my life everything that I've ever cared about was taken away from me. It started with pets dying. Then I lost my dad and my mom thru my own stubbornness, thinking that they had replaced me when my sister was born. I went thru my life trying not care about things cause I knew that they would be taken away from me. Then one day I get smacked in the head with a toilet seat, and you'd think that that would be the end of the torment, but no. I find out that I'm a grim reaper doomed to be undead for who the fuck knows how long! Why am I telling you all this?"  
  
"Cause I'm a good listener, keep going." His voice was quiet, and so relaxing.  
  
"Then I think maybe now that I'm undead things will change, but whatever control life and death likes to fuck with me! I made my first real friend and BAM she goes and jumps off a cliff and I don't know what the hell happened to her. I start to feel something for a guy, stupid considering I knew he was going to die, and well surprise, surprise he dies! I can't loose you too, all right Mason?! Are you fucking happy now I fucking told you how I feel!"  
  
He pulled over, I was half expecting him to say, 'you, me backseat now!' But instead he simply leaned over and hugged me.   
  
"Look, Georgie, from what I can tell you have to be a reaper for a fucking long time before your quota is up. And since we are undead we can't really kill ourselves to get out of our duties. So I think that you may be stuck with me for a very long time."  
  
"Betty's quota wasn't up, and she's gone."  
  
Mason shook his head. "Betty had more balls then me. I could never do that, especially if piggybacking meant never being able to see you again."  
  
"Mason, I just know that if anything happened I'd lose you."  
  
"So you'd rather not take a risk and regret it for however long, then take the risk and live it for the same undetermined time?"  
  
I shrugged. "I really don't know anymore. You know how I feel, can we just leave it at that for a little while?"  
  
"I guess so."   
  
He let me go, and continued driving. I actually felt a loss when he let go of me, and I wanted him to be hugging me again, but I knew we had work to get to. I wondered why the hell we had to drive to the middle of butt fuck nowhere and collect a whole bunch of souls. Sometimes I swear reapers have intuition.  
  
"I guess in Rube's haste yesterday he didn't give you any warning of what you were getting into," Mason said.  
  
"Rube never warns me about anything," I told him.  
  
"Well I think this is a situation you should be warned about, and to hell with Rube and his craziness!"  
  
I had a feeling that whatever awaited us in butt-fuck nowhere was something I probably would not want to see. It was probably something I had read before in the paper, and never gave it a second thought. I was kind of glad that Mason had decided to give me warning, although I was pretty sure that all the warning in the world would not prepare me for what I might see when I go to wherever it was we were going.  
  
"With the amount of souls that we have my guess would be an explosion or a cult. But since explosions don't tend to kill in mass on a farm in the middle of ass fucking nowhere I would say it's a safe bet that we are dealing with a cult who all commit suicide."  
  
"Peachy," I mumbled. "Just peachy."  
  
"Well really it's the better of the situations cause if you get an explosion and there's no time to grab the souls it can be hard to find pieces big enough to get souls out of."  
  
Lovely visual, little chunks of human laying between debris. "Ah!"  
  
"With a cult the thing that is the worst is that all the poor bastards look like they're sleeping. Most of them take odd concoctions that makes you fall asleep and then you just don't wake up."  
  
I couldn't really think of much to say. "Ah!" I said. Maybe I could have said 'I see.'  
  
"The nice thing about cults who practice in the middle of nowhere is that it usually takes a few days for the cops to find out about them, so usually we can go in grab the souls and not have to worry about cops. They tend not to like people pocking around while they are investigating crime scenes."  
  
"I'd imagine having a couple people around touch all their bodies may start to piss them off."  
  
"The other nice thing about cults is like half the souls believe so much in what it was they thought that they will see exactly what the crazy leader saw, and just go to it."  
  
"And the shitty part?"  
  
"Well the crazy leader is usually an ass and half to deal with. You'd think that he'd believe like all his followers in his own hype, but no half of them think that they are Jesus and that they should be able to rise again. No one was around in the time of Jesus but from what I know what he did was totally against the rules. If we could do that then no one would really die, well except for those people who's bodies are blown to bits." I nodded. "Well that makes sense."  
  
"I'm sorry Georgie I always forget what happened to you."  
  
"I think you're the only one."  
  
He laughed. "Hey being toilet seat girl is better then being 'that idiot that drilled a whole in the back of his head.'"   
  
I smiled. "I guess so."  
  
"I admit now that it was a pretty stupid move, but when you're that baked anything seems like a good idea to keep you that way. If only I had known that I would become undead and never be able to experience any sort of high to its maximum anymore."  
  
"So you mean with all that shit you do you don't get that stoned?"  
  
"I know how I should be acting on most drugs, so I act like that, but for the most part I'm not half as stoned as I make myself out to be."  
  
"So why don't you stop?"  
  
He shrugged. "Well I guess its just that I just got used to it, and it would be strange to stop now. If I really had the right incentive I would probably stop."  
  
"Well I guess that that's a good thing."  
  
"So how did you manage to weasel out of work?"  
  
"Told Delores that I had to go to a funeral."  
  
"I could never think of good excuses to get out of work."  
  
I shrugged. "I could never steal from the dead."  
  
"It's a victimless crime, really, they're dead, they're not going to be using it. Stupid morals."  
  
I laughed. "You have a warped mind."   
  
He grinned at me. "I know, and that's what you like about me."  
  
"I can't deal with this, I need a nap."  
  
I feel asleep a few minutes later, I hadn't been sleeping well since the whole situation had started, and now that it had been somewhat resolved I realized how sleep deprived I was. I woke up to Mason's fingers gently stroking my face. I also noticed that my head was on his shoulder. I grumbled, and opened my eyes.  
  
"Where are we?" I asked.  
  
"Almost there, I thought we'd get some food," he answered.  
  
"I see."  
  
"You know you're the first person to fall asleep on my shoulder who didn't drool all over me."  
  
"Good to know."   
  
We got out of the car and went into a diner. We were the type of town that you thought people made up for movies. There was even red and white checkered table clothes on all the tables. There was a sign that said "please seat yourself." Within moments an older waitress, a little on the plump side with gray hair was in front of us.  
  
"What can I get 'ya'll to drink?" she asked.  
  
"Coffee," we both muttered at the same time. After she took a few steps away from us I heard her say. "Rhonda you gotta hear these little love birds talkin'!"  
  
"Great we're a side show attraction," I muttered.   
  
Mason laughed. "You get used to people saying, please talk, you have the greatest accent when you immigrate."  
  
I smiled at him, and looked at the menu. I couldn't believe it the place actually made homemade meals! They had a lot of great sounding choices too. Spaghetti with meatballs, lasagna, meatloaf (who goes and eats meatloaf?) and most of stuff was served with "fresh cut fries" or "salad like mom made it."   
  
"Does all this stuff sound great Georgie?" Mason asked me.  
  
"It does, but I can't deiced between the fries and the salad!"  
  
"Well you get fries, and I'll get salad and we'll share!"  
  
"Sounds good to me."   
  
Our waitress came back, and set down our coffees. She also placed a tiny jug with cream in it between us. I had never been to a place that didn't serve creamers. "Have 'ya'll decided what 'ya want?" she asked.   
  
"Yeah," Mason said. "I'll have the meatloaf with a salad."  
  
"What kind of dressing would you like, Hun?"  
  
"Ranch?" I nodded. "Ranch is good."  
  
"All right and for you Hun?"  
  
"The spaghetti with meat sauce, please."  
  
"Good choice, with fries or salad."  
  
"Fries please."  
  
"All right then."   
  
"Did you want anything else to drink?"  
  
"A butterscotch shake," I answered.  
  
"I'll have one too," Mason said.  
  
"They're pretty big, you sure you don't wanna share and then see if you can handle another one?" she explained.  
  
"All right," Mason replied.  
  
We ate, and she was right the one shake was more then enough for the both of us. After we paid the bill we got back in the car and went down the road about a half an hour more, and found the an old farm house far removed from civilization. When we got closer Mason took my hand, he picked the lock to the house, and we walked in. He was right, nothing could have prepared me for what I saw. I was glad to have his hand in mine. There were bodies everywhere. There were bodies of everyone from babies, to pregnant ladies, to elderly.   
  
"The quicker we get this over with the quicker we can take the stubborn souls to the next room," Mason said, matter-of-factly.   
  
I nodded, and the two of us just walked next to each other and both bent down to each body and grabbed souls. He was right about half of them saw their light show immediately, and the other half just kind of stood there shaking there heads looking at all the bodies.   
  
When we were done Mason stood on the stairs. "All right, all you restless souls, how about we all go upstairs away from this, and we'll explain to you what's going on."   
  
We and about fifty souls went up the stairs where there were three bedrooms and a sitting room. The house was ancient, and I wondered why on earth anyone would have a sitting room on a upper floor. We all crowded in, and they all sat in front of Mason looking for direction.  
  
"All right, well first off if you haven't realized it yet, you are all dead. She and I are grim reapers, and will be sticking around until all of you have passed on."  
  
"How will we know when we are supposed to?"  
  
"You'll see something and you'll just know."  
  
After Mason said that about a dozen souls moved on. Most of them talked among themselves and didn't much bother with us. Mason explained to me that it would be the next day that would have to help people. When the sun went down we decided to go to bed, there were only about twenty souls left when we went up another flight of stairs to find rooms.   
  
For whatever reason I ended up in the same bed as Mason, we didn't do anything he just held me all night, and I needed it. Other then my first soul this had been the hardest thing I had dealt with since becoming a reaper.  
  
"You can put this behind you in a few days Georgie," he told me before I went to sleep. "When we're done we'll call the police and they'll take the bodies away."  
  
He just had to say that, didn't he? I had forgotten about the hundred or so bodies in the front room. It was going to be another sleepless night for this undead girl, Mason however slept like a baby.  
  
End  
  
End notes: up next George and Mason have to help the leftover souls crossover, including the crazy leader, after that Daisy gets huffy about George and Mason getting closer, then prolly something about George and Mason moving in together. From there we go into the future, the last few paragraphs of the last installment are written, feedback will get you more… trista aka the dustytiger 


	5. part 05

TITLE: A Day in the Life of a Grim Reaper; Behind the Cloak and Sickle (Part5of30)  
  
AUTHOR: trista  
  
DISCLAIMER: these characters do not belong to me, they belong to MGM, Showtime, the creator of Dead Like me, and the actors who portray them, please don't sue me, not that I have any money or anything you'd want!   
  
RATING: PG-13 (for language, but the kids these days…)  
  
CONTENT: Reggie/Millie friendship, Mason/George romance  
  
SUMMARY: Day two of Mason and George's trip, they need to help the remaining souls to move on, including the cult leader.  
  
SPOILERS: nothing past "Sunday mornings" to be safe, but more like "My room"  
  
AUTHORS NOTES: numero cinq est fini! This fic won't make any sence if you haven't read the first three (starting with "my first attempt at a dlm fic" the rest are named along the lines of "a day in the life.. (Part…) It's a little on the short side, but the next one will be more fun I promise! The day had to be written. Moonie's really bugging to get these stories finished out, but thanks for the praise, at least I know someone appreciates what I'm writing =8-D everyone else tell me what 'ya think… I swear its not overly romantic, I promise I'll be good and keep it DLM style hehe…   
  
When I woke up I momentarily forgot where I was, I was also wondering what was on my breast. Once the morning fog lifted I remember that I was in a house with a hundred dead bodies two floors beneath me; and the thing of my breast was probably Mason's hand. I went to move and he grumbled at me.  
  
"Don't go anywhere," he mumbled.  
  
"Mason we have shit to do today," I told him, sitting up.  
  
"I'm sure that we could think of better things to do this morning." "I'm sure we could but locked doors don't keep wayward souls out." I reminded him.  
  
"Damn."  
  
"I thought you said you weren't a breast man?"   
  
"Huh?"  
  
"That's where your hands found there way last night."  
  
"Well, Georgie yours are different I guess, I like them, and so do my hands." He went to grab them but I got up, leaving him face down in the mattress. "Oh! You tease!"   
  
I gave him the finger and proceeded to find the washroom. I was still really worried that something would happen to fuck up whatever was going on between Mason and me. I was still expecting us to get back with Rube waiting for us, angry and ready to give a lecture about why reapers can't see each other, or whatever. There may not be electricity in this strange house, but there were proper toilets, and running water, even if it was cold.   
  
Did all of the cult people live here, or did they just come here for meetings and stuff? I was thinking a lot about the whole cult thing. The mind frame someone would have to be in to join a cult, and what would possess a person to believe that the guy preaching up front was doing such a good job you would be willing to take your life. Although judging by yesterday a lot of the people believed it with all their hearts, since they all saw the same thing before they died. I had finally started to realize that death was, or at least appeared to be whatever you wanted it to be. Who knew after you stepped into that light what you had seen could very well simply disappear and become something more heinous, but there are a lot of things that I'll never know.  
  
Thinking about that made me think of Betty. I realized that maybe the reason that piggybacking wasn't an epidemic was that if you believed that what you saw in front of you was paradise, you would have to be absolutely sure that someone else's paradise, was or was damn close to your own. Else what would be the point? You live all your live in the mould of a world that someone else had made, you would at least want control of your afterlife.  
  
I brushed my teeth, and washed my hands and face, still thinking about Betty, and what I had seen the day before. I was pretty sure that today I would see some even stranger things. Mason had been right the crazy leader didn't move on right away, and didn't seem to be making any attempt to move on, and I doubted I'd go downstairs to find the souls we had left last night had all gone on on their own accord. I sighed, then the pounding on the door began.   
  
"Hurry up in there Georgie! I need fucking piss!" Mason screamed.   
  
"The door's unlocked!" I yelled back.   
  
He walked in and took a leak. "Thanks, now if you would get on with whatever it is you women do in the morning we have about ten restless souls downstairs."  
  
"I'm almost done, chill for a minute fuck!"  
  
A few minutes later we walked downstairs to see who was left for us. The leader of the cult was in a corner, not talking barely moving, he probably didn't want to face the few souls that realized that what he had said was bullshit. Almost immediately a disgruntled woman came up to Mason.  
  
"Why haven't I moved on yet?" she demanded.  
  
"I don't know, sometimes it takes a while, or you just may not be ready," he explained.   
  
"Well do something about it for fuck's sake."  
  
"I just take souls, and try and help them when I can, I can't make your lightshow appear."  
  
"Well why on earth not?"  
  
He began to fumble, but I knew that I wouldn't have anything of use to add. I saw out of the corner of my eye a little girl, who was crying, she was no more then five. I walked over to her, and sat down next to her.   
  
"Hi," I said, "I'm George, what's your name."  
  
"Maddie," she whispered.  
  
"Maddie, that's a pretty name, what are you crying about?"   
  
"My mommy and daddy left without me. They saw something I couldn't and then they walked to and they went away. I don't know where they went."  
  
"You don't? I thought a smart girl like you would know where people went after they're done living." "Mr. Giles said that we went to paradise, but I don't know what that is."  
  
"Paradise is the best thing you can ever imagine! Some people call it heaven, and I bet that your mommy and daddy are waiting for you right now! Now you just think of the best thing in the world and when you see it go to it."  
  
Moments later a giant candy store appeared in front of Maddie, she walked into it, and then it disappeared. It was upsetting to see a little kid in a cult. She had no idea what she was doing, at least the adults chose to join it, but why involve kids that know no better, especially when they left her behind when they moved on. Poor kid, I hoped that whatever lay in front of her involved her parents or someone loving her. Mason was still arguing with the woman from before. I looked around trying to find someone else who needed some help. Just then a guy about my age walked up to me.  
  
"Hi," I said.  
  
"Hi, what the hell is going on?" he asked, confused.  
  
"Well, there's no way to sugar coating this. Your dead."  
  
"How?"  
  
"Well whatever it was that your cult leader over there gave you, it killed you."  
  
"Just great! I joined this stupid thing cause my girlfriend wanted to, and now I died a virgin. This sucks!"  
  
"It could be worse."  
  
"How, my girlfriend's gone and I'm a virgin."  
  
"Well you could be an undead grim reaper."  
  
"At least if I was undead I could get laid."  
  
I rolled my eyes. "You never know what lies ahead."  
  
Just then before him a group of Playboy bunnies appeared, and he walked toward them and disappeared. He must have been really heartbroken about his girlfriend. Just then Mason walked up behind me.  
  
"Damn why do you get all the fun ones? She just saw a church or some shit." He said after whistling at the bunnies. I smacked him. "You can't get mad a guy for looking, Georgie."  
  
"No, I'm not mad at you for looking, I'm mad at you for whistling."   
  
He kissed me on the cheek. "I'm sorry, I won't do it again."  
  
"Well we better get back to this, the sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can get home."  
  
I nodded.  
  
We split up and helped the remaining souls. Most of them just needed clarification as to what happened, and what they were supposed to do, and then they moved on. Some of them, even after all that time, and their fearless leader cowering in the corner still saw the paradise he had taught them, and went there. We both walked up to our friend the crazy leader to confront him, and to help him to go on.  
  
"Are you God?" he asked Mason.  
  
"No, do I look like god to you?" he asked.  
  
"Are you God?" he asked me.  
  
"Uh, no, we're grim reapers," I snapped.  
  
"Oh, I thought God was supposed to come and take us to our final resting place."  
  
"We're the step before god, when you see a lightshow that's when you get to see god," Mason explained.  
  
"I'm not sure that I want to see god."  
  
"Did you do something wrong?"  
  
"Well you saw the bodies down there."  
  
"If you really think you're doing god's work then you wont' have a problem now will you?"  
  
"I guess not, and I am doing God's work, I saw him he told me."  
  
Just then a white light appeared and the guy walked right into it. I looked at Mason quizzically.   
  
"What the fuck was that?" I asked.  
  
"Who knew this bloke actually believed his own hype, all religious people see something like that, or gates," Mason informed me.  
  
I nodded. "Good to know. Now can we get out of here, this place is giving me the creeps."  
  
"You wait in the car, I have some stuff to do around here," Mason explained.  
  
I forgot who I was with, of course he would have to rifle through all their pockets. I went outside, and instead of getting in the car, I just looked at the sky. I hadn't done that since I was kid, and where we were, everything was clear, there was nothing to get in the way. When you're in the city when you're in a park looking at the sky you can still see the buildings out of the corner of your eye.   
  
Here there was nothing to catch your eye, expect the clear blue skies, interrupted by fluffy white clouds. Its really a nice world we live in, it's a shame that most people never really appreciate it. I never did before I died, and now that I'm undead noticing the small things sometimes helps me to feel better about what I do. A little while later to arms wrapped around my waist, and I felt two lips on my neck.  
  
"How about we go back to that little diner Georgie?" asked Mason.  
  
"Only if you're paying," I told him.  
  
"Religious types never trust banks, I love it."  
  
So we drove away from town, and stopped at the diner from the day before. The same waitress greeted us. We again ordered a shake to share, and shared the salad and fries that came with our meals. She kept smiling at us, and I heard her telling all her co-workers how cute we were. Before we left the town for good, Mason called the local police, and told them that we had run out of gas and went to the farmhouse and smelled something funny, that they may want to check it out to make sure that nothing was out of the ordinary. They didn't even ask for our names, and we were on our way.   
  
Sadly the clears skies from before did not stayed that way, and part of the way home there was a thunder and lightening storm. Mason seemed pretty stressed driving, and I was glad when we got to my apartment.   
  
"If Daisy's not home you can crash here for the night," I offered.   
  
"Thanks," he said, putting his hand on my back as we went to my apartment.   
  
When I opened the door to my surprise Daisy was not there. Mason climbed right into bed, and after changing I curled up next to him. He put his arm around me, and within moments I was asleep.   
  
End   
  
End notes: next up Daisy acts like a small child when she realizes that she can't have Mason, Rube has a heart to heart with Mason and George, and we get back to some Millie Reggie bonding! Feedback always welcome it helps me to feel like I'm not writing for the sake of writing…. (after the next fic I think we're gonna start jumping ahead in the future) trista aka the dustytiger 


	6. part 06

TITLE: A Day in the Life of a Grim Reaper; Behind the Cloak and Sickle (Part6of30)  
  
AUTHOR: trista  
  
DISCLAIMER: these characters do not belong to me, they belong to MGM, Showtime, the creator of Dead Like me, and the actors who portray them, please don't sue me, not that I have any money or anything you'd want!   
  
RATING: PG-13 (for language, but the kids these days…)  
  
CONTENT: Reggie/Millie friendship, Mason/George romance  
  
SUMMARY: George and Mason deal with everyone's reaction to them getting together. After a little fit Daisy and George start getting along, almost like sisters. Reggie decides to show Millie her tree.  
  
SPOILERS: nothing past "Sunday mornings" to be safe, but more like "My room"  
  
AUTHORS NOTES: This is number six and won't make any sense if you haven't read the first five (starting with the first one named "my first attempt at a dlm fic" the rest are named along the lines of "a day in the life.. Part…) this one is on the happy side, but it ties up some loose ends before we delve into the "a day in the life of a grim reaper, behind the cloak and sickle" alternate universe!! Why did I make the title so long?  
  
DEDICATION: to moonie moon, who's been working me like a slave! Good luck on your test/exam! Hope this is good brain candy haha  
  
I woke up, and wanted to just roll back over and go back to sleep, unfortunately out of the corner of my eye I saw the time. I grumbled.   
  
"Mason," I whispered.  
  
"Uh, five more minutes," he mumbled, turning onto his other side. I kicked him, and he shot up like a dart. "What was that for?"   
  
"We're going to be late."  
  
He looked at the clock. "You're right."  
  
He went into the bathroom, and I got dressed. I was glad that he still had the car, so we drove over to Der Waffle Haus, the only person that was there was Daisy. She was drinking a glass of water, and eating some fruit. We sat down opposite her.  
  
"You didn't come home last night?" I inquired.  
  
She looked up, didn't answer and continued eating. That was odd, Daisy and I had had our differences in the past, but she had never given me the silent treatment before. The waitress came over, and I order an orange juice and pancakes. Mason got a coke, eggs and bacon. A few minutes later Rube showed up, and sat next to Daisy. Roxy showed up shortly after, and pulled up a chair and sat at the head of the table.  
  
"Rube, I don't have time to fuck around today," she said. He handed her a post-it and she returned the chair and was on her way.  
  
"How did the trip go?" Rube asked us.  
  
"Fine," I answered.  
  
"Yeah, it was pretty straight forward, all cults are pretty much the same. The leader wasn't so bad after he realized that we weren't God who was mad at him," Mason explained.  
  
"Those cult leaders are an odd bunch," Rube said.  
  
"That's not all that happened on that little road-trip is it Georgia?" Daisy asked, finally breaking her silence. I blushed. "From what I saw when I walked in last night you and Mason got pretty close."  
  
Rube handed her a post-it, moved out of the way. She took the hint, and left.  
  
"What the hell is she talking about?" he asked, beginning to get angry.  
  
"We haven't DONE anything," Mason explained.  
  
"I don't care what you've done or haven't done, cause with you I know it's just a matter of time."  
  
He shrugged. "You've known me too long."  
  
"What do you have to say for yourself Peanut?"  
  
"Well, you said we couldn't have a lot of interaction with the living," I explained. Not that I really listened to that rule. "You never said that we couldn't have close interactions with other reapers. Besides if there is a rule about it then I wanna see the official reaper rule book to see what I can actually do, cause I'm starting to think that I can't do a whole hell of a lot!"  
  
Rube shrugged. "There is no real rule against, I just don't think it's such a good idea."  
  
"Whatever. It's my afterlife I'm free to make my own choice."   
  
I could tell Rube was pissed off, but he really couldn't do anything about it. He handed us each our post-its and then left. He didn't even eat, he must have been pissed off at us. I've never seen Rube not eat. I also knew that this was not the end of it, and he'd make up some rules or something. Whatever, at least he didn't tell us that we were not allowed to even look at each other ever again. We didn't say very much during breakfast, and then I went to work.  
  
Almost as soon as I sat down, Delores was standing there.   
  
"How did it go, Millie?" she asked.  
  
"Oh, umm, same as any other wake and funeral I've been to," I said, not sure what else to say.  
  
"You made your peace with your aunt?"  
  
"Yeah, I guess it was her time though. Everyone who was close to her was saying that it was probably for the better because she was diagnosed with cancer."  
  
"And you didn't know before hand?"  
  
"Well, my mom had a fight with her when I was kid, and so I didn't speak to her very much. I apologized to her, I just hope it wasn't too late."  
  
"It's never too late, I'm glad your trip was productive. We better get back to work."  
  
I nodded, turned to my computer screen, and began to look busy. The day went by pretty quickly, after work I realized that I really didn't want to deal with Daisy right away, so I decided to go to the park. Sure enough Reggie was there, sitting on a swing. She looked like her head was elsewhere. She jumped out of her skin when I began to talk to her.  
  
"What's up, Reggie?" I asked.  
  
"Oh, not much, I'm glad you're back," she said.  
  
I was half expecting her to hug me. "Have a rough last couple of days?"  
  
"Something like that, my mom is driving me crazy!"  
  
Well she didn't call her Joy, that had to be progress of some sort. "Why?" "Well, as you know I'm back in school, and I had a test the day you left. I don't do well on tests, but she got made at me for getting a "B" I usually get "C's" and "D's" so I was really proud to show her my "B" and she just shrugged it off like it was nothing."  
  
"Maybe there's something else on her mind."  
  
"I thought she'd be happy I was back in school, it kind of makes me want to stop again."  
  
"Well for one thing, you're too young to really drop out of school, and for another well… Was your sister good at school?"  
  
"Yeah, she was super-smart."  
  
"Maybe your mom thinks that you should be doing as well as she did?"  
  
Reggie shrugged. "I try to, but I just can't!"  
  
"Why don't you tell your mom that?"  
  
"Cause she never listens to me."   
  
"Have you ever tried to talk to her?"  
  
"Well, no…"  
  
"Then try, she may surprise you."  
  
"And if she doesn't?"  
  
"I won't get mad at you for not calling her Mom."  
  
"All right then. I want to show you something."   
  
"Where?" I inquired.   
  
"Right near my house."  
  
"And where might that be?" I couldn't believe that I actually remembered to pretend like I didn't know where she lived! I was very proud of myself.  
  
"It's like five minutes from here."  
  
"All right, cause I have to meet someone in a couple of hours."  
  
"Well then you can just look at it, and then you can go do whatever it is you do."  
  
I nodded, and she led me to her tree. It was really hard to pretend like I had never seen it before. But I think I pulled off rather convincingly. I really had no idea what to say about it though.   
  
"So what is this place anyway?" I asked.  
  
"It's where I come to think and be alone, it's my reminder of my sister."  
  
"I see. I'm sorry I really don't know what to say."  
  
"You don't like it?"  
  
"I didn't say that, it's just different, but I don't know I can kind of understand how something like this would help you."  
  
"I like to come here to read, think, do homework, whatever."  
  
"Does your mom know about this place?" I had a feeling that my mother would not like it one little bit.  
  
"Yeah, she does, she hates it, but she lets me keep coming back."  
  
"That's a good thing then." I looked at my watch. "I hate to do this to you, but I have to go. Did you want to meet here from no on?"  
  
"Um, no we'll come here if we want, but I know my mom doesn't know about me going to the park, so we'll keep meeting there."  
  
"All right, see you later Reggie."  
  
"See you tomorrow Millie!"  
  
I found my way to the road, and deiced to walk to where my next appointment was. My sister was one strange kid, but I was glad that I had a second chance to get to know her. After the last couple days taking one soul didn't seem as hard as it sometimes did. I looked at my post-it note to see where I was going. I knew where this one was, it was at a mall that I had been to a couple times when I was alive. I wondered how M. King was going to die at the mall. Since I started this job I began to realize just how many people died a day, and just how little it effected most people. Most of the deaths I dealt with never even made the paper.   
  
I went and I sat down on a bench as close to where whatever was going to happen was going to take place. It was nice not thinking about the whole situation with Mason not that we had resolved it. I was able to focus on doing my impression of a fly on the wall, looking for risk factors. Then out of the corner of my eye I saw a graveling climb up the wall, and start playing with a light fixture. The mall was pretty dead, I looked at my watch, and only saw one woman walking remotely close. I stood up, and walked by her. Brushing up to her as I walked by her, and took her soul. Moments later I heard a loud crash. I looked behind me, and sure enough the light fixture had fallen on her. She went on her way immediately, I was glad after yesterday I was glad to have a soul that knew what had happened and just moved on to wherever it was she was going.   
  
I decided to walk home from there, it wasn't that far away. On the way I decided to stop and get a couple of salads, as a peace offering to Daisy, hoping she'd be at the apartment when I got there. I bought a couple of chicken salads of some sort, at a place I had seen her bring stuff home from. When I got there, sure enough she was on the bed going through lines.   
  
"Daisy!" I said trying to get her out of acting mode.  
  
"What do you want?" she asked.  
  
"Brought a peace offering, come join, I'm not eating this alone."  
  
"What did you buy me?" she asked almost like a little kid.   
  
"A salad from that place you seem to like so much."  
  
"With chicken?"   
  
"Yes."  
  
"Oh, Georgia, you're such a good roommate!" She hugged me.  
  
I handed her one of the salads, a fork and a package of dressing, took my own, and we both sat down on the couch to eat them. I flipped through the channels finally landing on some cheesy looking chick-flick that I knew Daisy would like.  
  
"Have you seen this movie?" she asked.  
  
"No."  
  
"Oh, it's wonderful! Just watch it!"  
  
We watched the movie, and ate silently. It wasn't a terrible movie, but certainly not something that I'd normally watch. When it was done I decided that I should probably confront her about her giving me the silent treatment earlier. I'd get very broke very fast if I kept feeding her. Health food stuff isn't cheap, and that's what she tends to eat, she only occasionally treats herself to burgers and fries.  
  
"Why were you so mad at me this morning?"  
  
"Oh, Georgia like I even have to tell you!"  
  
Did I feel stupid. "Uh, I'm a little confused."  
  
"It's about Mason you silly girl."  
  
"But you don't even like him."  
  
"I know. He's a dirty little thing if you ask me."  
  
"So why are you mad me then?"  
  
"It was fun to have him pursue me. I'm going to miss it. I just get a mad sometimes when someone takes away my fun!"  
  
Well at least she admits that she's a selfish head-case. "Okay.."  
  
"I know it doesn't make much sense to you, but when I saw the two of you in that bed I felt like I had lost something. Well two things really."  
  
"Two things?"  
  
"Well I'm going to have to find another silly little puppy to tease, but that's not that hard. But also thought that I was going to loose you as a friend, and a roommate."  
  
"I'm not going to be moving in with him right away, and we haven't been very close friends."  
  
She laughed. "All right so we're more like feuding sisters then friends. But I thought that if we acted like sisters, or friends you would tell before you, well you know."  
  
"Before what?" I asked, almost wanted to laugh.  
  
"Well before you started sleeping with a guy. I have had more experience then you."  
  
"We haven't slept together. Well we've shared a bed two nights now, but we've never done anything!"  
  
"You haven't?"  
  
"Uh, no, actually we haven't really even kissed all that much."  
  
"Really?"  
  
I shrugged. "I don't know, I just don't have the urge to be all over him all the time, you know. At night it's nice to have him near, especially at that farm we were at, and last night it was just easier. He was tired, and I figured since you weren't home you'd get home later and not be too impressed if I gave him the couch, and since sharing a bed with him once wasn't a big deal."  
  
"You can't believe how relived I am! You have to promise me you tell me all the juicy details. I always tell you."  
  
Not that I've ever asked her for it. "I'll tell you as much as you want to here, keep in mind I will be talking about Mason."  
  
"Oh, right." We both laughed. "So have you ever been with a guy?" I blushed. "No, actually, when I was alive I went out of my way to avoid guys."  
  
"Why on earth would you do that, they're so much fun!"  
  
"I really don't know. It was pretty stupid of me."  
  
"A pretty girl like you not having a boyfriend that must have caused them all to talk."  
  
I laughed. "Maybe that's why I did it. I liked people thinking of me like this strange mystery person. It was funny to look at something and wonder what they were really thinking about you."  
  
"I could never do that, I like everyone to like me!"  
  
"I've noticed."  
  
"So what made you decide to change your ways with Mason?"   
  
I thought about it a moment, and answered the only thing I could. "I really don't know. We just started talking, and for a while I was afraid, but he made me feel better, and one thing led to another, and we started acting like more then friend." Daisy laughed. "I hope I find that some day."  
  
"I'm sure you will."  
  
"Oh! This movie is a classic!!"  
  
We both fell silent, and watched another movie together. It was the first time Daisy and I actually talked about anything of substance, and I was glad that we became roommates. Even if she had been dropped on my like an anvil at the beginning, I liked having her around. I also liked that I had someone to go to for advice, especially if the whole thing with Mason become even more serious. About half way through the movie the phone ran. I answered it.   
  
"Hey, Georgie!" I heard a familiar voice.  
  
"Hello Mason, I'm busy watching a movie with Daisy. It'll be done in about an hour if you want to come over after that." "Um, all right."  
  
I hung up the phone, and sat down next to Daisy. "Did I miss anything important?" I asked.   
  
"No, not really. Shh! It's coming to a good part!"  
  
I laughed to myself, and watched the rest of the movie. She was right it was a good part. A few minutes after the movie ended there was a knock at the door. I opened it, and Mason was standing there with a rose.   
  
"Where did you get that?" Daisy asked.  
  
"I bought it, thank you very much!" he said handing it to me. I laughed, and put it in a glass with some water. "Did you want to go for a walk?"  
  
"Yeah, just let me get my coat. I'll be back a little later Daisy."  
  
"Okay, we have to do that again."  
  
"Yes we will."   
  
We went outside.   
  
"Do what again?" Mason inquired.   
  
"We just had a little girls night."  
  
For the first since I was undead, I actually felt like I was doing what I was supposed to be doing. I was glad that for now bad karma seemed to be on vacation, and I could somewhat enjoy the second chance of sort that I got. I just hoped that Rube wouldn't pull out a dusty rule book and tell us that Mason I could not be more then friends.  
  
End  
  
End notes: all right this is probably the last in this time period, next one will be a year to five years in the future, I think… I'm not really sure… tell me what you think should I skip into the future or do a quick last one now where Rube sets out the rules? You tell me! I have a lot of ideas, but if I keep in this time I can't use 'em. Keep the feedback coming it keeps me writing… 


	7. part 07

TITLE: A Day in the Life of a Grim Reaper; Behind the Cloak and Sickle (Part7of30)  
  
AUTHOR: trista  
  
DISCLAIMER: these characters do not belong to me, they belong to MGM, Showtime, the creator of Dead Like me, and the actors who portray them, please don't sue me, not that I have any money or anything you'd want!   
  
RATING: PG-13 (for language, but the kids these days…)  
  
CONTENT: Reggie/Millie friendship, Mason/George romance  
  
SUMMARY: Rube sets out the rules. Daisy helps George get ready for a date, though George doesn't realize it!   
  
AUTHORS NOTES: this is number seven, read the first six first or you'll be terribly confused. Happy now you seem to have wanted another one in the now so here it is. It's getting a little shippy, sorry to all those who aren't into that, I can't help it I'm a romantic at heart what can I say! Hehe… keep the kind words coming…. Hugz and kissez to everyone who has said kind words about this fic series!!  
  
I showed up at Der Waffle Haus, Mason was already there, and he had apparently already eaten. I sat down next to him, and he put his arm around me. The waitress came over and I got a coke. I then turned to Mason, and was going to say something, but I forgot what it was when he kissed me. Before long we were acting like those kids in high school, that I used get mad at who insisted up blocking the halls showing how much they loved each other. If I had ever felt like this in high school, I probably wouldn't have gotten so mad at them. I also probably wouldn't have gotten suspended once for kicking one of them in the back of the head. I was young, I was stupid, I didn't realize how much fun PDA's could be. Of course when fate wants to kick you in the head, they do it in a different way. "Ahem," Rube cleared his throat, sitting across from us. "Here are the rules."  
  
Rules, of course there are rules for everything. Of course he didn't add right away, that 'what you were just doing is against the rules,' it could be a good a sign. Mason still had his arm around me, and I swear he was staring at my chest and pay no attention to Rube, but what can you do, he's a man. The waitress had set down my coke at some point, good think too, I was suddenly thirsty.   
  
"Well shoot with the rules, Rube," I said, taking a sip of my coke.  
  
"You and your rules, you need to lighten up sometimes!" Mason said.  
  
"Well, this actually one of those things where the rules are pretty light. The only thing that I can find as a rule is that reapers can't have kids."  
  
"Fine by me, I never wanted one anyway," I laughed.   
  
"Why not?" Mason asked, surprising me.  
  
"Best I can figure out when you become a reaper it does something to your genes. You both know that you heal quicker, and don't really age. You call it reaper metabolism don't you Mason?" Mason nodded. "So I guess when two people make a child with that kind of metabolism the kid's an abnormality, and if people start asking questions. If they ask the right questions, and get the right answers then we could get found out. So to keep things like that from happening the have a rule that reapers can't have kids together."  
  
I nodded. "So if he wasn't a reaper and I wanted a kid?"  
  
"Well they can't very well stop biology can they Peanut?"  
  
I shrugged. "Yeah, I guess your right. As I said I don't want kids, so that should not be a problem."  
  
"Well then that solves that problem. The second thing, this is my rule, you don't have to abide by it to keep in upper management's good books, but you do to keep me off your backs. I'd prefer it if you didn't work together all that much."  
  
"What?" Mason asked.  
  
"I have my reasons for it. You two have a job to do, and when it's necessary that you work together fine, but when it's not I'd prefer if you kept the work part separate from the relationship part of your life. I have two reasons for this, one as a courtesy to the people who's souls you take. Honestly Peanut how would you have felt if when you died the people that helped you were holding hands, and being more interested in each other then you." I nodded, I understood what he meant. "And the other reason is just that you see each other all the time, if you went on assignments together then you'd probably get really annoyed with each other, and that's not healthy." Rube shrugged. "Maybe I could have it wrong."  
  
I actually understood what he was saying, and it was nice that he thought of us when he made his rule up. It made a lot of sense, because that way we always had some alone time, which neither one could really argue with unless they wanted a pissed off Rube on their hands. Which, trust me, is not a very nice thing to be dealing with. Despite our differences Rube really was a pretty okay boss.   
  
"All right, I can live with those rules," I said.  
  
Mason nodded. "Yeah, me too, it doesn't seem so bad."  
  
The waitress came back, and Rube ordered some breakfast for himself. Daisy, and Roxy joined us a few minutes later. Roxy actually order pancakes, instead of just asking for her post-it and splitting. Rube handed us our assignments. I looked and mine, good another one that I didn't have to talk my way out of work for, and it was on my way home, double score! I looked at Mason's, his ETD was a few hours after I was done work. Daisy looked over and peaked at ours.   
  
"Is this another one in east bubble-fuck?" Mason asked.  
  
"You still have that car you procured for your road trip," Rube reminded him.  
  
"Yeah, I know but…"  
  
"You don't have a day job, don't whine fuck!" Roxy snapped.  
  
He flipped her the bird, and she simply shot him an evil glare.   
  
"I have an idea Georgia!" Daisy said. "I'm going to be done before you're done work, and since it's going to take Mason a while to get back from the middle of nowhere, we should go shopping!"  
  
"Shopping?" I asked. I never really did see the point of going shopping for the sake of going shopping.  
  
"Oh, please, I need a girl's opinion on some things I've been wanting to buy. Everyone knows you shouldn't go clothes shopping alone! Those fitting room mirrors lie, and a friend is a much better judge of what looks cute on you!"  
  
"Fine, fine, I'll go."   
  
She hugged me. "Oh, Georgia you're the best!"  
  
I had given up on having her call me George a long time ago, it only just occurred to me, that since I had become a reaper very few people actually called me "George," surprisingly the nicknames didn't bother me as much as they once did.  
  
"I hate to run, but I am going to be late for work," I told them all getting up, and leaving.  
  
Work was the same as always. Because I was so pressed for time I quickly stopped by the park to see if Reggie was there. Sure enough she was. I tried to walk past, but something made me go over to at least say hi to her. I walked over, and smiled.  
  
"Hey, Millie," she said.  
  
"Hey Reggie, I don't mean to blow you off, but I have to get home, my roommate wants me to go shopping with her."  
  
"Oh, that's okay, could you do me a favour though?" she asked.  
  
"I'll try."  
  
"Tomorrow could you meet me at my tree, I have an assignment due next week and I could really use your help."  
  
"It's a date I'll meet you at four, if something work related comes up I'll leave a note on the tree with what time I can meet you at on it, all right?"  
  
"Sounds good to me! Thank you so much."  
  
"Well I really should be going, my roommate gets mad when I'm late for things."   
  
I walked over to where S. Lang was to die. I looked around looking for risk factors. It had been windy most of the day, and one of the traffic lights I saw a graveling. I looked around to see who was most at risk of getting it with a falling light standard. Then I saw a bike weaving in and out of traffic, driven by a young Chinese woman, who looked like she was late and in a hurry. Just then she drove up onto the side walk, and I was able to just touch her to take her soul. The light had just changed, and she pedaled under the light. The light feel, and she died instantly. A very confused soul was standing next to me.  
  
"What just happened?" she asked. "I'm running late! I can't be held up by anything."  
  
"Well your not making your meetings for the rest of the day, or any more at all."  
  
She looked at me confused. "You mean, I'm the one under that light?"  
  
"Yeah, actually you are."  
  
She shrugged. "So what now?"  
  
"You'll know it when you see it."  
  
Just then a quiet forest with a waterfall appeared before her. She walked towards it, and waved to me. I guess she finally got what she really needed, time to relax. I continued on my way, and went to my apartment. When I got there I changed into my favourite pair of jeans, and a big t-shirt.   
  
"Oh, Georgia you're not going shopping with me like that are you?" Daisy asked.  
  
"Well, yeah…" I responded.   
  
"Think again." She tossed me a pink turtle neck sweater. "This will look good on you, and it should fit."  
  
I went into the bathroom and changed. Pink wasn't really a colour I wore often, but the sooner I got out the door with Daisy, the sooner our little shopping trip would be over. I sighed and came out of the bathroom, and Daisy nodded.  
  
"That will do, we'll have to find a nice skirt to go with that, but it's a start. Now don't wear those running shoes, you like to wear. I've got just the shoes! What size feet do you have?"  
  
"Uh, six."  
  
"Me too! Perfect!"  
  
She dug thru the closet and pulled out a pair of black boots. I looked at them, wondering how the hell I was supposed to get them on and off my feet. She smiled at me.   
  
"These are a little tricky at first, but it's not so bad if you sit down, I won't make you tie them properly cause you're going to be pulling them on and off to try on skirts," she told me.   
  
I sat down and put the boots on, tying them loosely. Daisy had also procured herself a car, so we took that to get to a mall about ten minutes from the apartment. As soon as we got into the mall she led me right to clothing stores, she seemed to be on a mission.  
  
"I thought that we were going shopping for you," I said confused.   
  
"Oh, I'll probably get some things, but right now we're focusing on you!" Daisy exclaimed.  
  
"Uh, why?"  
  
"Cause when a girl starts a relationship she has to get at least one cute new thing to wear!"  
  
I shook my head, and realized that there was no way I could change her mind with it, so I decided to go with it. She dragged me to about ten different stores, and had me try on dozens of skirts before we finally went to one that might have something I might where.  
  
She squealed. "This is it!!" she exclaimed happily, holding up a knee length flowing black skirt.   
  
I looked at quizzically. "I don't know about this Daisy."  
  
"Please, just try it on, if you don't like it we'll go back home and you can put on whatever frumpy clothes you want."  
  
"Fine, I swear this is the last skirt I'm trying on!"  
  
I went into the changing room, and to my surprise I actually liked the skirt, and I really liked it with the skirt, and boots Daisy had lent me. I came out, and she smiled.   
  
"That's perfect, now what kind of under things are you wearing?" she asked.  
  
"What?" I asked from back inside the fitting room.  
  
"You heard me, do you have nice ones?"  
  
"Uh, normal white ones."  
  
"Well that won't do, you need some black stuff."  
  
"He's not going to be seeing it for a while."  
  
"Irrelevant! You have to have pretty matching under things! It makes you feel nice!"  
  
"Even if no one is going to see it?"  
  
"Well you'll know, and that's all that's important."  
  
So after I bought the skirt, which I might add was quiet cheap and on sale, we went to a lingerie store, where Daisy pointed out some stuff I should buy, and I bought them. She also bought some more fancy stuff, and then we went home. When we got there she painted my nails white, and had me change. I kept looking at the time, hoping that Mason would come by soon to save me from her. Just as I was finally going to sit down, and put on the TV, the doorbell rang.   
  
"You stay right there Georgia, you can't make a real entrance here, but you shouldn't answer the door."  
  
At this point I was pretty sure that she and Mason had been plotting something. She opened the door, and Mason was standing there with a dozen roses. I didn't think I was the type that liked roses, but when someone gives you them, you really do feel special. He was also dressed in a nice suit. Daisy nodded, and I stood up. Mason's jaw was on the floor when he saw me all dressed up. Daisy took the roses, and put them in some water. Mason held out his arm, and we walked off together.   
  
My first real date, with a guy that I really liked. I was also happy that he went through such a fuss to set it all up, and I wondered where we were going, seeing as we were both dressed up a little. I decided not to ask. When we pulled up in front a nice restaurant I also figured out why Daisy hadn't let me eat when we were shopping. He smiled, got out of the car, and opened the door for me. I laughed, he was not acting like himself, but I liked it.   
  
The night went very well, after we ate we went for a walk in a park nearby before going home. We talked about a lot of things, including the rules Rube had laid out for us, and what our future might hold. It was really nice to spend time with him, and not have to worry about running off to go take a soul, or that there were a bunch of dead bodies below us, or the Rube was going to get mad at us.   
  
"This has been really nice," I told him.  
  
"Yeah, I agree, I've forgotten how nice dating can be."  
  
I smiled. "Well I hate to break the bubble we're in, but we've got to get up early tomorrow." He nodded. "Yeah, you're right."  
  
We walked to the car, and we went back to my apartment, he insisted upon walking me up to my place. Standing outside he kissed me goodnight, and the kiss didn't seem to want to end. Finally we broke it, and I unlocked the door. Upon opening it, I heard footsteps running to the couch. When I got inside a disheveled Daisy was on the couch pretending to be sleeping.  
  
"I know you were looking though the peep-hole," I said. "The date went well, and what you saw was as far as it went, 'night Daisy."  
  
"You're the best roommate ever Georgia, goodnight."  
  
I got into bed, and thought happy thoughts of Mason as I fell asleep, glad that something in my afterlife was finally going right.  
  
End  
  
End notes: all right this seriously the last one in this time frame, next up we're skipping ahead to the anniversary of Betty's crossing over. Will Mason and George be living together? How will Daisy fit in to the picture? All will be revealed in good time my small but loyal followers… hugz and kissez again, trista aka dustytiger 


	8. part 08

TITLE: A Day in the Life of a Grim Reaper; Behind the Cloak and Sickle (Part8of30)  
  
AUTHOR: trista  
  
DISCLAIMER: these characters do not belong to me, they belong to MGM, Showtime, the creator of Dead Like me, and the actors who portray them, please don't sue me, not that I have any money or anything you'd want!   
  
RATING: PG-13 (for language, but the kids these days…)  
  
CONTENT: Reggie/Millie friendship, Mason/George romance  
  
SUMMARY: It's the anniversary of the day Betty piggybacked, George is grumpy, and Mason doesn't seem to have a clue. Will he prove to be a good boyfriend? And just why are Mason, George and Daisy living together?  
  
AUTHORS NOTES: so if you didn't guess from the summary, we're in the future about a year, I'm sorry to all of those that like the gloom 'n' doom but I am an eternal optimist, writing this helped me out of my own grumpy mood… why can't real guys be like Mason (later, you'll see!) I'm also really proud of myself for using something my writing teacher always nagged was not used enough… the sense of smell… if you've never smelled a lily of the valley go find it and take a wiff, it'll relax you better then anything! A big spanxies to all of you reading this, and inflating my ego =8-D hugz and kissez  
  
I woke up to Mason groping my boobs. Fuck! Was I ever not in the mood! I rolled over away from him, but he didn't get the hint. When men are on a mission nothing seems to faze them. I couldn't believe that he didn't realize that today was a really bad day to piss me off. I had hardly slept at all the night before, though Mason seems to sleep like a rock, because with all my tossing, turning and getting up, he didn't even stir. I swear an hurricane could demolish the house, and as long as he had a pillow and blanket he'd still be sleeping. He tried cuddling up to me, and I got out of the bed.   
  
"I'm not in the fucking mood! Get a fucking clue!" I snapped at him, storming into the bathroom.  
  
Jesus fucking Christ! Why does he have to be such an ass sometimes!? I know that the guy doesn't own a calendar, but there are a million and one around here. I swear Daisy collects them, every time I turn around there is a new calendar somewhere in the house. I left the bathroom and went down the stairs to get myself a cup of coffee. Daisy was in the kitchen, eating a bowl of cereal.   
  
"You look terrible, honey, did Mason keep you up all night again?" she asked.  
  
"No," I growled. "I just didn't sleep well, and I'm grumpy dammit! I'm allowed to be grumpy aren't I?"  
  
"Yes, you can feel however you want to feel. If you wanna talk about it, you know I'm all ears."  
  
"Yeah, I know, thanks. I'm sorry if I'm bitchy today, but I'm just not in a good mood." "Is it your deathiversary?"   
  
Only in this group can that be a word, I swear. "No, it's not that, it's kind of someone else's, I guess."  
  
"Oh, well as I said, if you want to talk, I'll listen."  
  
I tried to force a smile, but it didn't work. "Thank you, really. I just wish that stupid upstairs would get a clue."  
  
"I heard that Georgie!" Mason said, coming down the stairs, putting his shirt on.   
  
I glared at him. "Just get a fucking clue all right. I'm walked over today."  
  
As I was leaving I heard Mason ask. "She didn't happen to tell you why she's so pissy today did she?"  
  
"I heard that Mason!" I screamed, slamming the door behind me.  
  
I walked rather quickly to Der Waffle Haus that morning. It wasn't often that I walked there, usually we all went together, but that morning I simply could NOT deal with both of them in the car. Most of the way there I thought of Betty, and cursed Mason for not realizing that today marked one year since she had piggybacked. It had taken me a while, but I did eventually get over the fact that she was no longer in my life. But today just brought it all back. I just didn't know how to deal with it. I kind of regretted not booking the day off, but the idea of spending the day with Mason in his clueless state didn't seem overly appealing.   
  
I guess what pissed me off the most was that Mason didn't even seem to notice why I was pissed off. On my deathiversary, as Daisy called it, he had been really sweet. He woke up before me, and made me breakfast in bed. He even tried to make the bacon and eggs into a smiley face, which only works on TV, but it made me laugh. To be perfectly honest that day hadn't bugged me so much, cause without it I would never have met him, nor Daisy, and I probably would be working away in the basement at Happy Time, never doing anything in my life.  
  
So I wasn't doing that much with my life currently, but I was in a serious relationship, and technically had two jobs! I was proud of myself. Sometimes life and death work in strange ways. Today, however was not a happy day, I was grumpy, and sad, and my stupid boyfriend just didn't get it! All right what was getting to me more was that Mason didn't even seem to know why I was in a bad mood. For Pete's sake he asked Daisy. Daisy? What the hell was he expecting as an answer from her. I love Daisy, don't get me wrong, she's a great housemate and we get along really well now. But she isn't exactly the most socially driven person in the world. Her world revolves around her, and I don't expect her to get things.  
  
I guess I had just wanted Mason to help me with this. I wasn't expecting him to not be effected at all. He knew Betty longer then I had, so I just kind of assumed that he knew her better. I looked at the ring that Betty had given me, and if it wasn't for the fact I wanted to get straight to work, I probably would have stopped at the park to sit and cry a moment. I was very glad that when we were looking for a house that there was one in our price range not five minutes from the park! I still met with Reggie there almost daily, it become part of both our routines. I just wanted to get my assignment from Rube, and not deal with Mason until I was done work ,unfortunately Reggie was on a fieldtrip, so I couldn't stall going home longer by talking to her.   
  
I got to Der Waffle Haus, and luckily enough Rube was there. I sat down across from him. When the waitress came by I told her that I'd just have some orange juice.  
  
"How are you today, Peanut?" he asked me, sounding genuinely concerned.   
  
"I've had better days," I replied.  
  
"I don't have a post-it for you today."  
  
Well that was a relief, although that too would have made for some good Mason avoiding time. The not going on many assignments rules was one of the only ones that we never went out of our way to break. Occasionally it was unavoidable, but for the most part, that part of our lives were kept separate, and I think that upper management liked the idea too.  
  
"You look more then just sad, you look pissed off," Rube commented.  
  
I shrugged. "You'd probably be pissed too if a certain someone didn't realize why you're not in the mood."  
  
"Give him a break, so far he's actually, surprisingly, been really good with these things."  
  
I sighed. "I think that's what pisses me off the most about it. I mean if he was always forgetting things, then it would be just another thing. But this is important. For fuck's sake he still buys me flowers on every month's anniversary!"   
  
Rube half laughed. "He certainly is an odd one. Where is he anyhow?"  
  
"I decided to walk over here, I just couldn't deal with him this morning."  
  
He shook his head. "Young love. I'm sorry I couldn't find out what happened to her."  
  
I shrugged. "Did I ever, say thank you for that?"  
  
"No, I don't believe you did."  
  
"Thank you, Rube, it meant a lot to know that you actually cared about what I was going threw, even if I didn't notice at the time."  
  
He smiled. "I'm not as bad of a boss as you think I am."  
  
I laughed. "No, you're not, anyhow I'm gonna take off before they show up. Wanna get the working day over with."  
  
He nodded, and I left. I was glad to have a day off from reaping. Why had I not thought of taking the day off from Happy Time? When I got to work, I didn't even go into the coffee room, I didn't want to talk to anyone. I sat at my desk, and got right to work. I put the picture of Mason and I hugging in the opposite direction. Delores had been really proud when I put all of three pictures up around my cubicle. I had that one, the Polaroid of Betty, and picture of Daisy, Mason and I standing in front of our house. Eventually I wanted one of just Daisy and I, but for an actress she doesn't much like cameras. At lunch time Delores walked by, and stopped dead in her tracks.  
  
"What's wrong Millie?" she asked.  
  
"Uh, nothing," I replied.  
  
"Well it's lunchtime, silly goose."  
  
"I know, I'm not hungry."  
  
"Aren't we the industrious one today, but insist that you take a break."  
  
"Oh, no it's all right, with all the time you let me take off it's the least I can do when I'm not busy."  
  
"Is something the matter?"  
  
"Oh, I had a little fight with my boyfriend this morning."  
  
She pouted. "You two don't fight very much, I'm sure that you'll work it out."  
  
I nodded. "I know we will, but I'm just kind of grumpy today, and I want to surround myself with happy things."  
  
She nodded. "You can't get much happier then here. Just promise me that you'll at least have a quick snack and a coffee later, okay."   
  
"All right, I promise."  
  
She then continued on her way, and I continued to work. I sometimes got the feeling that I was rat in a strange maze, that was always the same but I just couldn't get out of. It could be worse, I could be working in fast-food again. Now that was the job from hell, I swear in the time I was there I turned into a robot with a ponytail growing out of my hat. Despite the monotony I actually liked working at Happy Time, it was a nice change from the craziness of reaping. At least here I knew what was in store for me when I punched in. The two jobs seemed to balance each other out perfectly.  
  
When I finished work I decided to walk home, and on my way I made a stop at the park. I knew Reggie wasn't going to be there, but I wanted some alone time where I could just think. I sat down on one of the swings, and began to cry. I thought about Betty, and how much I missed her, and how much I wished I could have stopped her. I thought about what had happened to her, and I wondered where she ended up. I wondered if there were an repercussions because of what she had done. I also wondered what had made her think that the only thing she could do was jump.   
  
Loosing Betty had been like losing a friend to suicide, not that I ever had because I had no friends when I was living, but imagined that this was what people who lost friends like that felt like. Wondering if maybe if they had done something their friend wouldn't have done, and mostly wondering why on earth they would do such a thing when they didn't know the outcome. How can uncertainty really be better then life? I guess I would never know. If I could do just one thing, it would be to ask Betty why she decided that the life of a reaper was so bad that she had to get out? Mostly I wondered why she hadn't told me that she was unhappy, she always seemed so happy, and that's what got to me the most, how could someone so beautiful and full of life, be so unhappy and dead inside?   
  
Then all of a sudden in her honour I decided to do something I had not done since I was a kid. I started to swing, and swing, and swing. I kicked off my shoes, and then jumped off the swing, just to feel the air against my body, and to feel the ground on my feet when I landed. I did this a few times, until I finally fell onto the grass laughing. I then put my shoes back on and proceeded to go home.  
  
When I got there I was surprised to find the door locked, usually someone was home when I got home from work. I shrugged, and was kind of glad to have the place all to myself. I wasn't really in the mood for watching TV, so I decided that I would go upstairs to try and sleep, and if I couldn't maybe read a book. When I got upstairs, I was surprised to find the door to our room closed. It was only closed when both Mason and I were in there and we wanted some alone time, not that Daisy ever really came upstairs much, and we didn't go downstairs where her room was much.   
  
The only time I really ever went down to her room was for our weekly girl night, where one would pick the movie, and the other food, and we would just watch the movie and eat. No Mason, no phone, no distractions. It was never on the same night or at the same time, but at some point every week we would have our girls night.   
  
I was still really confused as to why my bedroom door was closed, but as always my mind had wondered. I opened the door, not sure what to expect. The worst case scenario was that Mason was cheating on me. I watched too many daytime talk shows. To my surprise when I opened the door I was greeted with smell of flowers, roses, lilacs, and lily of the valleys. I smiled, and looked around. There were lots of lilacs and lily of the valleys all over the bed., the dresser, the floor, my side table, everywhere, the scent of those two flowers filled my nostrils. I took a few deep breaths before looking for the roses.   
  
There was one at my foot, which I bent down to pick it up. I then glanced over at my dresser, he would put on in my underwear drawer, and leave it open. Then there was one of my side table, and each of our pillows. Then in the middle of the bed there was a giant teddy bear, holding a rose. I wondered where the rest were, Mason only ever bought one rose, or by the dozen, and I could only see six. Just then two arms wrapped around me, and in one of the hands were six roses.  
  
"I'm sorry I was such an idiot, Georgie," Mason whispered in my ear. "I didn't realize what today was, and when I finally did remember I knew that I would have to do something big to apologize."  
  
I smiled, the first sincere one of the day. "Thank you, you more then made up for it."  
  
He kissed my neck. "Apology accepted?"   
  
I turned around in his arms, and kissed him lightly on the lips. "Have I ever mentioned that I love you?"   
  
"Yeah, but I never get tired of hearing it. I love you back."  
  
I laughed. "Who knew that someone so rough around the edges would turn out to be such a romantic."  
  
He gave me his best Cheshire cat grin. "So do you want to talk at all?"  
  
"What's there to say?"   
  
"I'm sorry, again, and again, and again. I can't believe I was so stupid not to realize why you weren't in a good mood the last couple of days. I know that she meant a lot to you, and I went and forgot."  
  
"You're forgiven, you're only human you make mistakes."  
  
"This was a big one. Why did she mean so much to you anyway?"  
  
I started to cry lightly, and he sat down with next to me on the bed, after moving some flowers out of the way. He kissed me on the cheek, and I cried a little harder.  
  
"She was my first friend," I whispered.   
  
He hugged me close, we didn't need to exchange words, and I'm glad we didn't, cause I didn't want to cry when he had done something so amazing for me. I was glad that I had finally told someone that. I was that without having to tell him I was able to express that before I died I had never really lived. When I asked for my life back Betty had told me I wasn't really doing anything with it anyway, and she had been right. Being a grim reaper was a pretty small price to pay for getting to try and live again. Just then there was a knock at the bedroom door.   
  
"Come in," we both said at the same time, not moving from in each other's arms on the bed.  
  
"Awww!!" Daisy exclaimed. "I really goofed when I turned you down."  
  
I smiled at her. "What's up Daisy?"  
  
"I was going to propose a gal's night in, but it seems that you two have kissed and made up."  
  
All right so make up sex would have been really nice about then, but even after all that I wasn't exactly in the mood. Don't get me wrong, later Mason's going to be in for a nice surprise, but right then was not the time. I looked at Daisy, and then at Mason.   
  
"You know what we haven't done for a while?"  
  
"Had a threesome?" Mason asked, with a laugh.  
  
"Not in this lifetime, boy!" Daisy and I exclaimed at the same, time, throwing us into a giggle fit.  
  
"Can't blame a man for trying."  
  
I smacked him lightly. "We haven't gotten all dressed up, and gone out for a nice meal, then go out dancing."  
  
"That sounds like a lot of fun, and it'll get all our minds off of the whole situation."  
  
"Oh I have the perfect dress for you Georgia!" Daisy exclaimed happily.  
  
After the night I had with the dancing, and what Mason and I did after, I was surprised that I had any energy left to sit up in bed and think for a moment. I thought of Betty, fearlessly taking that leap into something she was not sure of, but was certain was better then the life she was living, and wondered if she knew that I was doing all right considering. I knew that she wouldn't have wanted me to mope around all day.   
  
I looked at the ring one last time. I wondered why some boy had given it to her all those years ago. I wondered f he had meant a lot to her, or if it was just something she had been able to charm out of him. I took a deep breath, and could still smell the flowers. I was going to be vacuuming up petals for weeks, even months to come.   
  
I wiped the last tears from my eyes, and then put my head on Mason's chest to let the rhythmic beating put me to sleep. With pain comes suffering, with love comes happiness, yin, yang, whatever, Rube once called it. At the end of it all it ends up in perfect balance, and the grumpiest day of my life didn't turn out as badly as it could of thanks to the best boyfriend in the world, and a good friend I would never have met had I not lost another one.  
  
End   
  
End notes: hope 'ya like, I tried to make a balance of good ol' dead like me grrr, and hope… did it work? I don't think another part in this time frame is needed to tie up any loose ends, so let us go deeper into the future, please don't ask me why I think it's going to be five years later, I just got the idea in my head…   
  
Hint about new character, Colt, he's in a rock band! Keep the feedback coming to keep me writing! trista aka the dustytiger 


	9. part 09

TITLE: A Day in the Life of a Grim Reaper; Behind the Cloak and Sickle (Part9of30)  
  
AUTHOR: trista  
  
DISCLAIMER: these characters do not belong to me, they belong to MGM, Showtime, the creator of Dead Like me, and the actors who portray them, please don't sue me, not that I have any money or anything you'd want!   
  
RATING: PG-13 (for language, but the kids these days…)  
  
CONTENT: Reggie/Millie friendship, Mason/George romance  
  
SUMMARY: Reggie has some sad news for Millie, we see what life is like for our favourite reapers five years in the future.  
  
AUTHORS NOTES: please read the first 8 parts if you hope to understand wtf is going on! This one is just a basic overview of what's going on five years in the future, the next ones are going to have more plot and less detail! Incl a new unwanted housemate (no it's not the intro of Colt that's not till the next time jump eevil me), and a very Oedipus (I spelled that right the first time haha!!) Rex type encounter between Prof. Lass and Millie, no it's not going to be as fucked up as Oedipus I promise, it just may mean Georgie needing to find a way to vent her fustration =8-D  
  
I was just leaving the washroom, taking my hair out of a towel when the phone started to ring. It scared the living shit out of me, because our phone doesn't ring very often. I went into the living room, and picked up the phone.   
  
"Millie?" I heard the voice on the other end say. I knew it was Reggie but I could tell that there was something wrong.  
  
"Reggie?" I asked. "What's going on?"  
  
"Can you please meet me at the park?" she asked.   
  
"Yeah, I'll be there in a few minutes," I said.  
  
"Thank you so much, you're the best." Then she hung up the phone.  
  
I was a little worried, I had never heard Reggie sound so upset about anything. I toweled my hair a little more, before throwing my towels and PJ's into the laundry hamper. Which was, of course overflowing. You would think with two other people living here I wouldn't have to be Suzy homemaker doing all the laundry and most of the cleaning.   
  
I had given up on Daisy doing housework long before we moved in with Mason. I don't know if she did it on purpose or not, but whenever she tried to clean she just ended up making matters worse. I'm pretty sure she meant well, but somehow something always went wrong when she tried to be nice and clean up. From the washing machine shredding sheets, to jamming the vacuum blowing the motor, to dropping insane amounts of dishes loading the dishwasher. The girl simply cold not clean.   
  
Then we get to Mason, dear Mason. The guy might be great at remembering dates, whispering sweet nothings when a girl needs to hear them the most, to having the best timed surprises, but when it came to cleanliness he was lacking it entirely. Mason is the biggest slob I've ever known, and I thought I was bad when I was at home! There was something unsettling about waking up to find your lover's dirty underwear under your foot.   
  
At that moment, however, I had better things to worry about then the laundry pile climbing up the wall. My sister needed me, although for the last couple of years I didn't see her so much as my sister, but more like my best friend. I was glad to have her in my life as a friend because I don't think we could have been nearly as happy as sisters. I walked over to the park.   
  
She was sitting on the bench when I got there, and I knew then that something was terribly wrong. I walked over and sat next to her. Before I knew what was happening, she had hugged me and she started to cry. I didn't want to ask her what was wrong, but I knew that it was something big. After a few minutes of crying, she finally stopped.  
  
"What's wrong?" I asked her.  
  
"My parents are getting a divorce," she told me, getting right to the point.  
  
I had no idea what to say, my heart broke when I heard her say that. So what that I had a new life now, they were still my parents, and I couldn't even really react, as I had never even met them according to Reggie.  
  
"I'm so sorry, how are you taking it?" I whispered.   
  
"Shitty! I remembered when I was a kid thinking about how lucky kids who's parent's had split up were. They got two rooms, more toys, and if they got pissed off at one parent, they could go to the other's and cool down. But as you get older you start seeing your parents as these pillars guide you through hard times, and it's their being together that is going to shape you into a loving, caring adult! I thought by sixteen I'd be safe from my parent's divorcing!"  
  
"People fall in and out of love all the time. Sometimes it takes a while for them to admit their feelings or lack thereof, but they have their reasons for it, and you cannot know what's going on in their minds. I know this really hard for you, but as that lame saying says, every end is really a new beginning."  
  
"I understand that but, why now?"  
  
"Who knows. When I lost my family I thought that I would never be able to live again, but I had to, I didn't have a choice. I had to pull myself out of what I was feeling and get on with it. These are hardly the same situations, but it's all I have to go on. Sometimes I wonder if maybe I would have been better off if I hadn't lost my family, but then I look at the things I do have, and I feel a little better. What you're feeling is not going to heal over night, but one day you're going to learn that in some way you are a better person because of it."  
  
She nodded. "I know you're right, but it hurts so much."  
  
"Reggie, you can't tell me that this really came out of left field."  
  
"I know, Millie, I know that my parents have had their problems, but I thought that they could work through them."  
  
"Some problems are just too big. Some things that people do cannot be undone, and all the love in the world will not make up for whatever hurt the other has caused through their actions."  
  
"You know those philosophy classes you're taking are starting to pay off." She laughed.  
  
I stuck my tongue out at her. "Well it made you feel a little better didn't it?"  
  
"Yeah, a little, thank you. I knew I could talk to you and you could make it seem a little better."  
  
I smiled. "So how's school going this semester?"   
  
"Pretty good, I'm averaging a seventy, which I'm very proud of because it's my harder semester!"  
  
"That's great, you know that I'm a phone call away if you need study help."  
  
She nodded. "I'm sure you're kicking ass in all of your classes again this semester."  
  
I laughed. "Something like that."  
  
"Is it going to be strange taking his class if I tell you all kinds of details about the divorce?"   
  
"Probably not."  
  
She didn't need to know that it was already infinitely strange taking the class. The professor was my father after all, and I do mean was because I've pretty much accepted that my life before I was reaper is different from the life I have now. I never would have thought that I would ever be living in a nice house with the man I loved, and one of my best friends. I never thought that I'd go back to school, and do well. I really started to think that dying had made me more alive, although Rube and I still had our differences because of that being my outlook on afterlife.   
  
Reggie and I talked a little bit more about school, before we both realized that we had a lot of homework to do, and should probably get to it. I walked toward my house, but as soon as she was out of sight, I began to walk to a bus stop. The math on the one car, three drivers thing was really beginning to not add up. I got to the site of where R. Black was supposed to die in ten minutes, and started looking around for risk factors. Sometimes I wished that I worked with natural deaths, as I'd know who was going to die, it would make life so much easier.   
  
I stood there for a few minutes and couldn't really find any huge risk factors. Street corners were the worst to show up early at because they moved to fast. I looked my watch, and it was about a minute till R. Black's appointment. Just then a garbage truck passed by me, followed by a bike that was being chased by a graveling. R. Black was going to have an interesting bike ride that day. I stepped out as if to J-walk, and just touched the guy on the bike's shoulder, taking his soul. Then I shook my head and went back onto the sidewalk, to watch the craziness unfurl.   
  
The graveling was now in front of the bike, and then it ran off. I swear it laughed, and went up on a rooftop to watch his handy-work. This would probably be good if the graveling was watching. I've noticed they only sit and watch really strange accidents they cause, if it's going to be boring they run off to axe the next shmoe on their list.   
  
Just as then the bike hit a huge rock in the road, sending poor R. Black flying into the air, landing in the garbage truck. He looked phased, and then began to laugh. Sadly for R. Black the laughter was short-lived as at that moment the garbage man had decided to compact the trash, crushing him to death. Never laugh at death or it'll fuck you up the ass, and chances are you won't like it.   
  
He was then standing next to me, still laughing his ass off. He had the world's most annoying laugh fuck! He sounded like, I don't know what it was in pain, and needed to be put of it's misery.   
  
"Shut up, you're dead, there's nothing to laugh at," I growled at him.  
  
That shut him up. "Dead?"   
  
"Yup."  
  
"Who are you?"  
  
"Grim reaper."  
  
"No cloak and sickle?"  
  
I sighed. "It's getting dry cleaned. For fuck's sake this is real life not some fucking movie! One guy goes to work on Halloween, in an original costume and the rest of us are punished for eternity."  
  
The guy pissed me off all right? I don't know what it was about him, but he rubbed me the wrong way.  
  
"So what now?" he asked.  
  
"Well most people just see lights, and they're done with it."  
  
"Don't I get a last request?"  
  
"Depends what."  
  
"Can I fuck you? You're hot!"  
  
That might be why I hated him, I had a sixth sense when it came to pervs. "I don't think my body builder husband would like that too much." I lied.  
  
He nodded. "Then can I fuck the cute blonde over there?"   
  
"I'm the only one who can see you, dumbass."  
  
"Oh, well, can I fuck wherever I'm going?"  
  
"I'm a grim reaper I don't know what the hell awaits you any more then you do."  
  
"Shit."  
  
"The only way to find out is to move on."  
  
Just then a group of scantily super-model types appeared before, and they all seemed to calling for him. He went toward them. I hoped he was going to hell, and he'd learn that they're all drag queens. The death thing was still funny though. On second thought I don't want to be in another division, you get to see way to many crazy deaths when you're dealing with accidents. In any division I'm sure you'd get stuck with dirty old men.  
  
Again with the reaper sixth senses, I walked a few more blocks, and Daisy drove by. She stopped, and I got into the car.  
  
"How was your day?" she asked.  
  
"Why do the guys that die the strangest ways always end up being the biggest fucking pervs?" I responded.  
  
"Yeah, I know. Yuck! Says a lot for your little lover boy."  
  
"He's just not your type."  
  
"So what made you say that anyway?"  
  
"So buddy flies off his bike, lands in the back of garbage dump, starts laughing, trash compacts, you know the rest. So anyhow a few minutes later he asks if he can fuck me."  
  
"Sick puppy!"  
  
"Then he fucking sees a harem of hot girls he'd never have a chance with begging for him to come over."  
  
"I bet they all end up being drag queens!" She laughed.  
  
"That's what I was hoping too!"  
  
We both started giggling and went home. As soon as I got there, the laundry growing up the wall began to bug me, so I took everything and sorted into baskets, and started throwing loads in. The one thing Daisy is really good at is folding laundry, so we often sit down in her room folding laundry and talking. Although she refuses to touch Mason's underwear. I always tell her that they're clean but she doesn't care, she will not touch them. Sometimes she'll fold all the laundry when I'm out, and she'll leave them in baskets by themselves, or in the dryer.   
  
After the laundry was done, I decided to go upstairs and lay down. I was beginning to get a headache. I was pretty sure that it was from trying to act like I had not gotten the worst news of my life that day. I devastated me that my parents were breaking up. I knew why, and I began to worry if it took my mother so long to find out that my dad was cheating on me, that maybe it ran in the family. I didn't think that Mason was cheating on me, but what if? Almost on cue, he walked into the room, and jumped onto the bed. I growled at him.  
  
"You know what I like!" he exclaimed, pinning me to the mattress.  
  
"That's not why I growled at you," I told him.  
  
"What's wrong Georgie?"  
  
I shrugged. "It's nothing."  
  
"You know you can trust me. I haven't told anyone any of your little secrets."  
  
I began to cry. "Reggie told me my parents are getting a divorce."  
  
"It's about damn time, how long has he been cheating on her?"  
  
"Too long."  
  
"That's not what's bugging you is it?" I shrugged. "Oh, Georgie, you know you give me more then what I need. I'd be exhausted if I was cheating on you."  
  
I smiled. "You can't be serious."  
  
"I'm serious, you're the only person I know that can wear me out! I would not have the energy to cheat. You'd know that I was cheating on you cause you'd start finding Viagra around here!"  
  
I laughed at him. "Maybe you're just getting old."  
  
"I'll show you what this old man can do!"  
  
He started kissing me, but it didn't last long because all of a sudden we heard Daisy call. I can always tell when Daisy has done something major, because of the way her voice goes. It gets all high pitched, and she actually calls me George to get my attention. I grumbled, and we both went downstairs. Upon getting to the basement, we saw the laundry room, and there was water on the floor.   
  
The Daisy curse had hit again, this time the washing machine and decided to backup and overflow. I shook my head, and Daisy simply stood there shaking her head. Mason was laughing hysterically.   
  
"Every time I try to do something nice for you Georgia!" Daisy pouted.  
  
"It's the thought that counts?" I asked, beginning to crack a smile.  
  
"You wouldn't happen to know anything about fixing washing machines would you Mason?"   
  
He shook his head. "I had better things to do with my hands then to fix washing machines."  
  
"So who do we call, a plumber or a mister fix-it?" Mason and I both shrugged. "I hope he's cute! I can't get it for free if he's not cute." I rolled my eyes. So this was my afterlife. It seemed like a mix of the three stooges and the odd couple sometimes. So dying wasn't the end of the world for me, and I probably wouldn't have made much of myself if I wasn't undead. Sometimes things work out in an odd way, and I hoped that the same would be true for my parents, and for Reggie. Then I felt Mason's hand on my ass.  
  
"I think we were busy before," he whispered in my ear.  
  
"Well you call around and see if you can find someone to fix this, it was the last load, there can't be too much in there that we need right away," I told Daisy.  
  
She nodded. "If the door's closed, don't open it." I knew that the comment went either way, and Mason and I went upstairs to our room.   
  
End   
  
End notes: feedback please my loyal Pavlov's dogs hehe…. Hope everyone's Halloween ended up as fun as mine tehehe… I already wrote what was coming up… hugz and kissez!!! Trista aka the dustytiger 


	10. part 10

TITLE: A Day in the Life of a Grim Reaper; Behind the Cloak and Sickle (Part10of30)  
  
AUTHOR: trista  
  
DISCLAIMER: these characters do not belong to me, they belong to MGM, Showtime, the creator of Dead Like me, and the actors who portray them, please don't sue me, not that I have any money or anything you'd want!   
  
RATING: PG-13 (for language, but the kids these days…)  
  
CONTENT: Reggie/Millie friendship, Mason/George romance  
  
SUMMARY: still five year into the future, something happens with professor Lass at school…  
  
AUTHORS NOTES: this one's a short one kiddies, sorry I'm having some writer's issues currently… hopefully I'll get over it by the next installment =8-D   
  
We met everyone at the Der Waffle Haus, I could hardly believe that no one else had gotten sick of that place yet! I could only imagine how long they had all been going there, but I know that five years was more then enough for me. Most morning's I'd have juice or a soda, and then eat something when I got on campus, unless Rube gave me an assignment that would screw up my regular schedule I wouldn't eat.   
  
When we got there Rube and Roxy were already there. Sitting on opposite sides of the table. Daisy sat next to Rube, and Mason and I sat next to Roxy. We know not to hardly touch each other when we sit near her or she has a tendency of hitting us. She likes being a bitter little bugger.  
  
"How's school going, Peanut?" Rube asked.  
  
I shrugged. "Pretty good."  
  
Roxy scowled at me. She hated when anyone brought up my being in school as I had quit my day job and started going to school instead. I had listened to Mason much too long about the victimless crime thing, and his scruples began to rub off on me. How else did you think we could all afford to live in a nice big house in the good part of town. Someone really had to charm him or herself a new car. It was sad that the only thing that we could make small talk about of late was school. We had started growing accustomed to each other, and didn't see the point of filling the air with meaningless words.  
  
"I'm going to be late for work," Roxy grumbled.   
  
Rube handed her a post-it, and Mason and I moved out of the way to let her out. I swear she purposely stepped on my foot, but I decided not to call her on it, she'd kick my ass. Daisy watched as she left the building, and kept watching till she was out of sight.  
  
"Was it just me or was she particularly bitchy today?" Daisy asked.  
  
Mason and I started laughing, until Rube glared us. "I think she's just sick of the three of you coming in here all happy and shit, while she's stuck in some dead end job," he proceeded to tell us.  
  
"Or jobs," I mumbled under my breath, just loud enough for Mason to hear.  
  
He smiled. "Georgie, that was mean!"  
  
Daisy laughed, knowing exactly what I had said, Rube looked dumbfounded. The three of us really had been living together too long, I swear half the time we were on the same train of thought. Rube shook his head knowing he would not get a straight answer out of any of us. He handed us each or post-its, and got up to leave.  
  
"Unlike you three, I have stuff to do."  
  
"I resemble that remark Rube!" Mason said, before looking at his post-it. "Fuck did you know that I was going to piss you off cause mine's in the middle of bum-bum fuck nowhere! Where's your Georgie?" I showed him mine, and he groaned, glared at Rube who gave him a funny smile, and Rube proceeded to walk away. "I'm going with her tonight you know that don't you Rube!?" "Whatever Mason, just sit in the car and don't get in the way!" He then walked out.   
  
"Well I've got to get to class," I said, kissing Mason on the nose.  
  
"Have fun!"   
  
Daisy grumbled, and stormed out of the restaurant too. I shook my head, what a day it had started out to be! I hugged Mason, and to my surprise Daisy actually looked like she was going to walk home. I didn't know what had gotten into her lately, but she wasn't herself. We hadn't even done girls night in nearly a month. I wanted to talk to her about it, but she seemed to be avoiding me. I actually was really missing girls night and was hoping that the black cloud that was looming over her would soon lift.   
  
"Millie!" Professor Lass said, as I was leaving his class.  
  
"Yes?" I said, turning around kind of surprised.  
  
"Do you have a class next?"  
  
"No."  
  
"All right, could you come into my office, we need to talk."  
  
I nodded and I went into his office. I couldn't think of anything that I had done that we deserve getting talked to, but my father has always been odd. He closed the door behind him, and for some reason I felt uncomfortable.   
  
"I've been reading your papers, they all seem so sad, and I don't think a pretty girl like you should be so sad," he explained to me.  
  
This could not be what this seems to be. "Excuse me?"  
  
"It just seems that you're frustrated, and it comes out in your writing. Are you frustrated, Millie?"  
  
"No!"  
  
"Sexually frustrated, I mean?"  
  
.What the fuck!? This is sick! Freud would have a fucking field day! "Hell no!!"  
  
"Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be with an experience man?"  
  
He didn't need to know any details about my sex life, but Mason was a pretty experienced man. "Um, Professor Lass, aren't you married?" I was trying very hard to keep my cool.  
  
"I'm getting a divorce," he explained, putting his hand on my waist.  
  
"I could be your daughter!" All right so I AM his daughter which makes the statement all the more odd.  
  
"That's never stopped me before." He tried to kiss me.  
  
I moved my face and his lips landed on my cheek. "I have a boyfriend who I am very much in love with."  
  
"I loved my wife once, and that didn't stop me from playing."  
  
"You're fucking sick! I'm not fucking interested!!"  
  
"Your loss."  
  
"I'm your daughter!!"  
  
"What!?"  
  
"I mean I could be your daughter, or some shit, I heard you had a daughter my age. You've made me very uneasy!"  
  
"Well, Millie, you're just no fun then are you?"  
  
"If you keep it up I'm going to tell the university officials. I would think that if you're going through a divorce the last thing you need is trouble at work too."  
  
He shook his head, trying to regain composure. "All right then, have your way. Will I be seeing you in class tomorrow?" I simply walked out and slammed the door behind me, before I put my foot in my mouth again. That was close, too close. I decided to transfer out of the class, as interesting as it was, things were already strange enough without adding what just happened into the mix. I felt bad wasting the money, but I knew that Mason would understand. Plus it would free up a little more of my time, which would make Rube happy. Well as happy as Rube gets.   
  
I knew Mason may be a little pissed off if I didn't tell him before I went ahead and dropped the class, but I knew when I explained to him why he'd get over it. It was actually really easy to drop the course, and I was glad something was going right that day.   
  
I was contemplating telling Reggie as I walked home, but I decided that the last thing she needed was to hear something bad about her father. I knew my mother well enough to know that she'd be bad mouthing him every chance she got, whether she was there or not. I walked past the park, glad the she wasn't there, I don't think I could keep it from her at that exact moment.  
  
When I got home Mason was in the kitchen, drinking some coke. I smiled at him, poured my own glass, and sat next to him. I took his hand.  
  
"What's wrong, Georgie?" he asked.  
  
"I had to drop one of my classes today," I whispered.  
  
"Why? You're doing so good in all of them."  
  
I shrugged my shoulders. "Yeah, I know but when your professor hits on you, it's kind of hard to keep going to his class." He caressed inside my hand, and I began to cry. "Which one was it?" he demanded. "I'll kick his ass for hitting on my Georgie girl!"  
  
"Mason!"  
  
"I'm sorry, but you know if you asked me to."  
  
I shook my head. "It's more complicated then just some guy hitting on me."  
  
"You don't mean what you think you do?"  
  
I nodded, and began to sob. Within moments he had his arms around me, trying to make me feel better. Don't I wish that all it took was one embrace and everything that was wrong in my world would somehow be right again. The door opened, and Daisy came into the kitchen, she sighed loudly.  
  
"Your room is upstairs for a reason, lovebirds," she said.  
  
"Georgie's had a bad day!" Mason snapped.  
  
"Excuses, excuses! Well I had a bad day too, you don't me with some guy in the kitchen do you?"  
  
"Time out. What the fuck!?"  
  
"We have a rule, bedrooms are for that stuff!"  
  
"We're not doing anything! We're hugging cause she had a bad day!"  
  
"I can't deal with this fucking fighting!!" I yelled all of a sudden, wiping the tears from my eyes.  
  
"Wait, Georgia honey, were you crying?" Daisy asked, suddenly concerned.  
  
"We'll talk about that later, right now I want to know why whenever you and Mason are sharing the same air you start fighting."  
  
"Well, it's hardly something I want to explain with him around."  
  
"She starts it all the time. I try to be nice, but you know my patience," Mason tried to defend himself.  
  
"Wait, wait, is this about having a dry spell and you're ticked off because you can't have Mason?" I asked Daisy, making her blush. "Why not go to the school and find my father!" I then stormed upstairs and slammed the door to my room. "Leave me the fuck alone both you of!!"  
  
All right, so it didn't happen often, but when something was bugging me, and I mean really bugging me I had the world's worst temper, and that day had be the worst day of my life, well maybe second worst day of my life. When I got into one of these moods I didn't want to deal with people, and I had been in one of those moods half my life before I died, and I hoped that this bad mood would not take so long to cure. The door started to open, and I threw a pillow at it.  
  
"I fucking mean it Mason leave me the fuck alone!"   
  
"Georgie," he tried to say, his voice sounding pitiful.   
  
"Don't Georgie me all right? I need some time alone to think!"  
  
"Fine whatever."   
  
A few moments later I heard the front door slam. I looked out the window, and he was speeding out of the driveway with the car. I took his pillow, held it close and began to cry. I don't think I had ever been so mean to him, and part of me wished I hadn't freaked out so bad, but I did say I wanted to be alone, and she should know by know that my alone time was precious to me.  
  
I must have fallen asleep because when I opened my eyes, I was surprised to find Mason holding me. Well at least I know that he doesn't stray too far even when I'm pissed off at him. I rolled over and hugged him. He opened his eyes, and then went to move away. I pulled him closer.  
  
"I'm sorry Mason," I whispered, kissing him.  
  
"It's all right, I should have known better then to bug you when you're stressing," he responded.  
  
I smiled. "I don't deserve you."  
  
He laughed. "Well, you just keep on thinking that way. Now I do believe there is the little matter of this." He handed me my post-it.   
  
I looked at in and grumbled. "I have half an hour to get there."  
  
"Tell you what. I'll drive you over, and then we'll go out for a nice quiet dinner."  
  
"You're done for the day?"   
  
He nodded. "Lucky for us."  
  
I smiled at him, and then got up, and went downstairs. I was surprised that Daisy seemed to be gone, but if she really was having a dry spell she was probably out on the prowl. Mason and I drove to a small park on the other side of town. A graffitied up place, that looked like it should be condemned, or turned into a parking lot. I sighed, and looked around for risk factors. Mason was sitting in the car, I was glad he was because I sure wouldn't have felt safe there alone. I looked at my watch and there was five minutes until whatever was going to happen would happen. I looked around and I didn't even see anyone, and the whole place was a risk factor. I felt pretty stupid standing there.   
  
A few minutes later I saw a guy running by, followed by screams of "McEwan! Get your pussy ass back here!" I reached over, and took his soul, and then went over to the car and sat down waiting to see what happened. I was expecting something exciting, but the guy ended up tripping over his shoelace and smacking his head into a rock. When you something hits you the wrong way anything can kill you, nothing surprises me. He didn't need any help moving on, so Mason and I proceeded to go to a restaurant in a nicer part of town.  
  
After we ate we went home. As soon as we walked in the door we heard moans from the basement, well at least for a little while Daisy would be in a better mood.  
  
End  
  
End notes: And there we have part ten… Daisy's out of her grumpy mood, as is George, but what will make Roxy happy, or whatever? Find out in the next part… don't forget a couple of new charcters are going to be joining the cast, one might even be an unwelcome guest at the house… stay tuned kiddies, HUGZ and kissez all!! 


	11. part 11

TITLE: A Day in the Life of a Grim Reaper; Behind the Cloak and Sickle (Part11of30)  
  
AUTHOR: trista  
  
DISCLAIMER: these characters do not belong to me, they belong to MGM, Showtime, the creator of Dead Like me, and the actors who portray them, please don't sue me, not that I have any money or anything you'd want!   
  
RATING: PG-13 (for language, but the kids these days…)  
  
CONTENT: Reggie/Millie friendship, Mason/George romance  
  
SUMMARY: Rube has a talk about Roxy with our fave reapers, Reggie and Millie have another heart to heart  
  
AUTHORS NOTES: writing issues resolved, I didn't even write what I had originally planned for this installment, the introduction of a new character… Wooopsies! Next one, darlings, next one… hehe   
  
The poem in the story is one of mine, and I wrote it when I was Reggie's age in the fic I'd luv to hear opinions on it….   
  
Since I forgot last time, a big spanxies to Moonie Moon for advise with where to go!! A big special hug 4 u!!! And now the story….   
  
I growled upon hearing the doorbell ring for the second time, you would think with two other people in this house that someone would go and open the damn door, or whoever was standing on our doorstep would get a clue, and leave us alone! Of course I couldn't be that lucky, fate had decided that I was its bitch, and despite taking a break for a little while, it seemed to come back ten fold. I put Mason's bathrobe on and went downstairs, to see who it was. Now they were knocking angrily, although I wouldn't know why he would be visiting us, I had a feeling I knew who it was.   
  
"Georgia! Get the door!!" I heard Daisy call from downstairs.  
  
"Why couldn't you do it?" I grumbled to myself, I had a pretty good idea that she was still entertaining whoever it was we had heard he with the night before.   
  
I opened the door, and without even saying anything, Rube let himself in and sat down on the couch.  
  
"Where are your roommates?" he asked.  
  
I looked at my watch. "At this time, you really need to ask?"  
  
"Don't fuck with me Peanut!"  
  
"They're sleeping, Daisy hasn't even began her morning routine yet."  
  
"So what are you doing up?"  
  
I shook my head. "Well you weren't going away, so I got out of bed."  
  
"Get them down here, we need to talk."  
  
"Now?" I whined.  
  
"Yes now! Why would I come here now if I wanted to talk to them later!"  
  
Yes my liege! I rolled my eyes, and went downstairs first, knowing that Mason would be easier to make raise. I knocked on Daisy door.  
  
"I'm busy Georgia!" she yelled.  
  
"I know you are, but Rube's here and he wants to talk to us."  
  
"Oh, I'll be out in a few then!"  
  
I then went upstairs, to my room, where Mason was still asleep. He looked so innocent when he was sleeping, I laughed at the thought of Mason's innocence. I jumped on the bed, and kissed him lightly. He grabbed me and pinned me under him.  
  
"Georgie, it's been a while since you woke me up like this!" he exclaimed happily.  
  
"Don't I wish, Rube's here."  
  
He let me go. "Damn, that kills the mood doesn't it. And you're in my bathrobe and everything." I swear I saw him make a pouty face.   
  
I kissed him lightly. "Maybe tomorrow."  
  
There was a twinkle in his eyes, and he got up and got up and put on a pair of pants. Neither of us felt like getting dressed. We went downstairs, and Rube was in the kitchen making himself a cup of coffee.  
  
"Do you two want anything?" he asked.  
  
"Shouldn't we be the ones asking you that?" Mason asked him. "But since you're offering I'll have a tea."  
  
"I'll have coffee," I mumbled, instinctively going to the fridge to get the milk out.   
  
"Georgia be a dear and make some coffee," Daisy said coming up the stairs, seeing some guy to the door. She was wearing a long white silk nightgown with a matching flowing bathrobe.  
  
I put the milk on the table, and then went to get the sugar, and some spoons. This was why I was glad that we still met elsewhere but here in the morning, without even thinking I went into hostess mode, while the two of them wanted to be served. A few moment later, Rube brought two of the cups into the kitchen, and brought the other two, and we all sat down.  
  
"So what brings you here on this lovely morning?" Daisy asked, pouring milk into her cup.  
  
"You're in trouble."  
  
"What did I do?" she asked, confused.  
  
"Not just you, all three of you!"   
  
"What did we do?" asked Mason. "We haven't even been plotting anything lately."  
  
Rube rolled his eyes. "Will you stop interrupting me, and let me explain. Maybe trouble isn't the right word. Roxy asked for a transfer today."  
  
"And this effects us how?" I asked.  
  
"Stop interrupting!!" he snapped at me. "She said the reason that she doesn't want to work here anymore is that she doesn't want to work with the three of you anymore."  
  
"What did we do?" asked Daisy.  
  
"That's what I'd like to know!" Rube growled.  
  
I couldn't think of anything that I had done to Roxy, from what I knew Mason and Daisy were pretty much steering clear of her cause she had been in a bad mood the last little while. I was kind of avoiding her too because I didn't want to get the brunt of her temper.  
  
"Well maybe she's just mad that we haven't included her in the stuff we do, but that's because, well…" I tried to explain.  
  
"You mean she's jealous that we all live together?" Daisy asked.  
  
"Maybe. You never know with Roxy."  
  
"We didn't mean to not include her, the living arrangements just make sense," Mason defended.  
  
Rube nodded. "I understand that, but I don't think it's the only thing."  
  
"That's the only thing we've done, and that was not to hurt her."   
  
He sighed. "She was really pissed off, and I want to know what you did!"  
  
"We told you! If she wants to pissed off because she has a day job, and none of us do, then let her. It's her choice to have one!" Daisy began to yell. "I get everything I need without working, I don't see why she can't do it."  
  
"Have you told her this?"  
  
She shrugged. "Well, maybe when I was mad at her."  
  
"And did you involve George and Mason?"  
  
She smiled. "I didn't mean to, when I get angry things just start coming out of my mouth, and I don't mean it and everyone knows it. I've been have some female issues of late, and my mouth gets carried away, you know how it is." "Well you better think pretty hard about what you said to her, and not do the same thing to whoever's going to replace her!"   
  
He handed us each our post-its and proceeded to let himself out of the house. We all looked at each other, smiles forming. We waited a moment to see if Rube came back, and he didn't, and we all started laughing.  
  
"He's pissed," Mason said.  
  
"Really pissed," I added.  
  
Daisy laughed. "I can't believe she took all that stuff serious, it was just a silly argument. I told her that we should go shopping, and get a make over. She told me that she didn't have time to do that, and I told her that if she would just quit her silly day job then we could all hang out together. She got mad, and walked away. If someone's going to run away on account of that well let them, we don't need friends like that anyway."  
  
Mason shook his head. "You have a skewed worldview. You know that?"  
  
Daisy smiled. "Since when did you use such technical terms, my dear Mason."  
  
He shrugged. "Sometimes I pick stuff up from Georgie."  
  
She looked at her post-it, and sighed. "How am I supposed to get dressed, eat and get to where I need to be in an hour?"  
  
"Everyone else manages it somehow," I mumbled, heading upstairs to change.  
  
"Don't you be using the shower Georgia!"  
  
"I have to be in class in half an hour it'll take me five minutes."  
  
Daisy ran into the bathroom and locked the door behind her. I sighed and looked at Mason.  
  
"No, we are not moving to a place with two bathrooms with showers, this place is already too big for us."  
  
I pouted, and went upstairs. "Well at least you won't have to worry about me cheating on you today, I probably stink." "Georgie you always smell good."  
  
I shook my head, and went upstairs, and closed the door to our room. I came down a few minutes later, with my hair pulled back in a ponytail, wearing one of his T-shirts, and a pair of fleece pants.   
  
"Could you give me a drive while Princess is in the bathroom?" I asked.  
  
He nodded, and we went out the door. He dropped me off at school, and I only had a few minutes to spare before my first class started. I hadn't even looked at my post it. When I did I realized that someone at the school was going to die, and lucky for me at that time I didn't have a class so I could go between classes, at least something today was working out for me. I kissed Mason lightly before getting into the car, and then ran into the school, to my first class. I sat down between two guys, and hoped that they would shut up during the lecture. They were quiet, and the lecture was actually pretty interesting.   
  
Between classes, I went upstairs to where K. M. Smith was supposed to die, in the dorms of course. I looked and couldn't see anything that looked out of the of the ordinary. Everything in university dorms was potentially dangerous. Then I heard something that was not out of the ordinary, but at five minutes to and ETD was very dangerous. "CHUG!! CHUG!! CHUG!!" I heard a guy screaming. A drinking contest at noon, now I knew that my peers really did do whatever the hell they wanted whenever the hell they wanted.  
  
Then I heard what made me sure that I was following the sound to where someone was going to die. "Let's go Karen!!" a girl exclaimed. "Show them that girls can drink just as much as guys." I walked over to the room, and there was a crowd gathering. I went over to the girl, who must be Karen, who was chugging a beer. I walked passed her and patted her on the shoulder. "You go girl." I said before taking her soul. I walked to the back of the crowd. Moments later she began to choke, and everyone started laughing. It's funny how when you get in trouble in a large group all your friends think that you're joking until it's too late do anything to help you. If it wasn't for the fact I'd get in trouble I would have told them that their friend was going to die.   
  
I looked at my watch, poor kid was going to be choking for two minutes, and have to listen to all of her friends laughing at her for that long. Just then a guy came up from behind her to try and do the Heimlich. He looked pretty drunk himself, and I knew that this could not end up well. He was a pretty large guy, and she was a pretty small girl. He over judged his strength, and managed to push the little air that she had left in her out, and moment later she died, leaving a very confused soul, heading toward me.  
  
"Let's go," I told her.  
  
She looked at me confused, but did follow me to somewhere a little quieter.  
  
"What just happened?" she asked.  
  
"I'd say you lost the contest, but I don't think anyone's going to care that the guy won," I told her.  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Well, because I think more people will remember the girl who died."  
  
"I'm dead?"   
  
"Uh, yeah."  
  
"And you are?"  
  
"A grim reaper."  
  
"Don't you go to school here?"  
  
"Yeah, we grim reapers have lives too you know."  
  
She nodded. "So what now?"  
  
"Well if you have no unfinished business you move on, else I help you with said unfinished business."  
  
"I can't think of anything I want to do."  
  
"Then you'll know when it's time for you to leave."  
  
She nodded, and then a beer factory appeared. She walked toward it, and she was gone. I proceeded to my next class. After school I passed by the park, and Reggie was sitting there, looking like she was waiting for me. I went over to her, and she looked up at me, I could tell she had be crying."What's wrong Reggie?" I asked.  
  
"I can deal with my parents breaking up, I guess, but my friend is moving now, and I just can't deal with all this bullshit anymore!"  
  
I guess about three years ago she had met the girl I figured she was talking about, her name was Liz, and from what she told me she was a very nice girl. "Are you talking about Liz?"  
  
She nodded. "I knew that her mom and dad liked to move, but I thought maybe."  
  
"For once you'd be able to have a friend?"  
  
She nodded. "I guess what hurts the most is that I'm pretty sure that we'll loose contact, cause I just suck and keeping in touch with people."   
  
I hugged her. "I'm still around."  
  
She shrugged. "I know, but you're different."  
  
If only she knew how different I really was. "I guess you're right."  
  
"Look, read this and you'll know how I feel." She handed me a piece of paper.  
  
If best friends are forever where did she go?  
  
Have I missed her? Or has she left?  
  
Maybe it is only me who is left behind  
  
Somewhere along the line I was lost  
  
Doomed to be forever alone  
  
Loyalty, trust, honesty, the qualities of a best friend  
  
I have had this in people, but never for long  
  
The world is moving, changing  
  
My heart is changing  
  
My friends are leaving  
  
Doomed to be forever alone  
  
Through good times and bad  
  
Laughter or tears, friends are together  
  
Years pass friends remain, you change  
  
For me year pass I change, friends change  
  
Still doomed to be forever alone  
  
Am I the problem?  
  
Have I chosen the wrong friends?  
  
I smile on the outside, while inside cries  
  
I laugh until it hurts outside, inside only hurts  
  
I feel pain, but conceal it  
  
I show compassion and loyalty  
  
Somehow I remain doomed to be forever alone  
  
I hide what I feel, emptiness  
  
I show I am happy  
  
I simply live in the moment  
  
I don't dwell on the past, it makes me cry  
  
The past is too painful, too many memories  
  
The future is unclear  
  
The present is where I am happy  
  
Still I feel I am doomed to be forever alone  
  
The future may end up like the present  
  
I am not hopeful  
  
I do not allow myself to hope, nor wish  
  
I have never been allowed to be anything but alone  
  
Perhaps I haven't been totally alone, but not for long  
  
If I can live for the present, never looking back perhaps someday  
  
I will live with being, forever alone  
  
Now the is like a gaping wound  
  
A part of me always seems to be missing  
  
As I look back there is never the person to complete the meory  
  
As I cry I realize that I am forever alone  
  
Always doomed to be forever alone  
  
I began to cry, I could hardly believe that my sister could feel that way. I hoped that she would begin to feel differently after we got to know each other, but she was still just as sad as I was when I was her age. I wondered why it was that I couldn't help her, but I was determined to show her that things can change, and even when things seem their blackest there is always a light at the end of the tunnel.  
  
"I used to feel the same way," I told her.   
  
"I know, that's why I showed it to you."  
  
I tried to smile. "But you have to understand that you won't always feel that way, eventually you're going to find someone that you know you may loose, but you take the risk anyway, just so that you can have those happy memories. I heard a song one that said, tomorrow you can have yesterday is mine, and you know what it's so true. No one can take away all the good things that have happened in your life, and when it's all said and done it is the good things that you remember the most."  
  
Reggie nodded. "I understand what you mean, but I'm still glad I wrote that."  
  
"It's very well written, you're really talented." I was still learning things from my sister.  
  
"Thank you, but I should probably get going, my dad's bringing me for ice cream."  
  
Only my father would go out for ice cream on a day like this. I hugged her, and then we both went our own way.   
  
End  
  
End notes: Shit! This time frame is gonna be longer then I had planned!! I still haven't introduced Roxy's replacement!!!! Well stay tuned for the next one all… hugz and kissez… thank you for all the lovely feedback, it make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside trista aka the dustytiger 


	12. part 12

TITLE: A Day in the Life of a Grim Reaper; Behind the Cloak and Sickle (Part12of30)  
  
AUTHOR: trista  
  
DISCLAIMER: these characters do not belong to me, they belong to MGM, Showtime, the creator of Dead Like me, and the actors who portray them, please don't sue me, not that I have any money or anything you'd want!   
  
RATING: PG-13 (for language, but the kids these days…)  
  
CONTENT: Reggie/Millie friendship, Mason/George romance  
  
SUMMARY: Roxy's replacement, Colvin comes to town, and decides to squat at the house, and hit on the gals! How will everyone react, will they be begging Roxy to come back?  
  
AUTHORS NOTES: so who is all has read all of these stories so far!? Hehe… hope you all like, this one was really easy to write, I think that the next one will be the last in this time frame, I'm hoping to have Colt put in about five more crosses fingers but it all depends on what happens in the next time jump and how long we need to stay here…. Please keep the kind words coming cause its nice to know that people are reading and enjoying! Hugz and kissez to everyone who does read this regularly, and as always a special thanx to my slave driver Moonie, if she weren't here encouraging me I wouldn't be getting so many parts done! Now on with the lovely story….   
  
Two days in a row of being awoken by the doorbell, this was not a good sign. When I opened the door this time, Rube was standing there with a guy I had never met. He was blond with green eyes, kind of tall, very all-American.   
  
"Good morning Peanut!" Rube said, almost chipper.  
  
"Good morning, uh come in, I'll go wake everyone."  
  
He nodded, and I proceeded downstairs, and knocked on Daisy's door.   
  
"Rube's here," I told her. "I'd advise you get dressed cause he's got someone new with him."  
  
Daisy nodded, and I closed the door and went upstairs to wake Mason. Sometimes I think that this system is flawed. If Daisy would get out of bed to open door then she'd only have to go upstairs, not down then up, then back down. If I was an anime character there'd be a giant animated sweat drop coming down my forehead right about now. I went into my room, and Mason was sitting up in bed grinning.  
  
"Wipe that smirk off your face," I told him, he pouted. "Don't give me that look, Rube's here again."  
  
"Again!? What did we do now?"  
  
"I don't think we did anything wrong, he's got a new person with him, so I'd advise you get dressed today."  
  
"Male or female?"  
  
I smacked him. "Doesn't matter."  
  
"I don't get a hint?"  
  
I shook my head, and put on a pair of jeans, and T-shirt. I still found it nice to be able to dress casual in the morning. Mason put on a pair of sweatpants, and a long sleeved shirt. We went downstairs, and again Rube had invaded our kitchen to make coffee. I really wish he wouldn't do that I feel dumb standing in my house while someone else is doing something.  
  
"Who's this?" Mason asked.  
  
"Hi, I'm Colvin," he said, with a Texas accent. He held out his hand.  
  
"Mason," he said, shaking his hand.  
  
He smiled at me. "Beautiful, what would your name be?"  
  
"Taken," I growled.   
  
He sighed, and then saw Daisy. "And this lovely creature here is?" He took her hand and kissed it.  
  
"Daisy," she replied.   
  
"A beautiful name for a beautiful lady."  
  
"Down Romeo."   
  
He back off, though I had a feeling that he was going to be pursuing us relentlessly, I missed Roxy already. Daisy and I both poured ourselves cups of the fresh coffee that Rube had been kind enough to make, and sat down at the kitchen table. Mason stood behind me, his arms around me protectively. Like he'd think I'd ever go for a guy like that in a million years! I hate jock types, they're so boring. Besides, if I did like that type would I have ever done ANYTHING with Mason. He's so cute when he's insecure!  
  
"All right, so you've all met Colvin, he's Roxy's replacement, he doesn't have a day job, just like the rest of you," Rube said, sitting down across from Mason and me. "He's also going to need a place to crash till he finds his own."  
  
I looked at Daisy, and then looked up at Mason. We all had the same idea, we didn't want him in our house. Sure there was plenty of room, but we didn't want someone living in our living room!   
  
"You're not suggesting what I think you're suggesting are you Rube?" Mason asked.  
  
"Only for a few days, this place is huge, I won't overstay my welcome," Colvin said, smiling at us.  
  
"It's just we're all in a routine around here, and another person in the house will screw everything up."  
  
"I won't stay very long, I promise."  
  
I knew that this guy was not going to back down, and that none of us would be able to get him to change his mind. After a few more minutes of arguing, just in case we had gotten the wrong impression, we decided to stop wasting time. So the annoying Texan was going to be living for us for a while, I hope that he really did decide to stay only a little while. Rube handed us each our post-its, and Colvin proceeded to go outside to get some shit. I had a funny feeling that Colvin had stayed the night at Rube's and it had not gone well, and he decided to pawn him on us as a punishment for making Roxy leave.  
  
I looked at my post-it, and I had half an hour to get there. "I'm borrowing the car, I'll call when I get to school, and one of you can pick it up!" I called, grabbing my coat and running out the door.  
  
I got into the car, and drove to where I had to be, a mall today. People really do die just about everywhere. I parked, and went inside, I looked at my watch, and had ten minutes before D. Waits was to die, and less then half an hour before my first class started. The way today had gone I had a funny feeling that this was going to be a hard soul to get over. I picked up my phone and called the house.  
  
"Hello!" I heard Colvin say.  
  
"What the fuck are you doing answering our phone!" I heard Mason scream in the background. "Give me that fuck ass!"   
  
"Hi," I said, when I was sure it was him.  
  
"Hey Georgie, are you done?"  
  
"Not quite, could you meet me at the school I have a feeling this one's gonna be hard one and I need to get to class."  
  
"All right, can you believe that little shit actually picked up the phone!"  
  
I smiled. "I guess we're going to have to lay down some rules while he's around."  
  
Mason sighed. "Georgie, can't we just kick him out?"  
  
"We told him he can stay for a little while, he'll stay for a little while."  
  
"Fine, anyway I'm going to let you go so I can get over to the school, all right."  
  
"Thank you, have I ever mentioned how much I love you?"  
  
"You can mention it again."  
  
"I love you so much."  
  
"I love you too." Silence. "Don't fucking look at me like that! Not, you Georgie, I've gotta go, bye." I didn't even have the chance to say goodbye to him. I laughed, Colvin was messing with the wrong person. I put the phone in my pocket and proceeded into the mall in the place where D. Waits was supposed to die in now, five minutes. I looked around and the place was pretty busy. I looked around, looking for anything that seemed like a risk factor, then I saw a graveling playing by an open escalator pit.   
  
I looked at my watch one minute, then I saw a girl with tons of bags, rushing toward where the men were working on the escalator. I reached over and took her soul. She didn't seem to be looking where she was going, and just continued walking. She had headphones on and didn't hear the repair guys screaming at her to stop. She tripped right into the pit, her bags flying everywhere, and she landed on her head.   
  
I walked passed the escalator, and looked down in the pit. She was the bottom, kind of folded up with bags and stuff all over her, a crowd was starting to form, so I motioned for her to follow me, which she did.  
  
"What's going on?" she asked confused.   
  
"You're dead."  
  
"Oh, so what happens now."  
  
"Well if you're ready to go you cross over, but if not I need to help you with that, so come with me." She began following me. "All right, I lied, just come with me, I have a class but I have a friend who's really good at this stuff, and he'll help you realize whatever you need to before you can move on."  
  
She nodded. "Um, so what are you exactly?"  
  
"A grim reaper, as is my friend."  
  
"If you're a grim reaper why are you in such a hurry?"  
  
"Well, grim reapers perform a service for people, but occasionally the trying to have an afterlife gets in the way, that's why we work in groups, so my friend's going to meet us on campus, and help you with whatever you need to do, when he'd done you'll see a nice lights show, and you'll go wherever it is you dead people go."  
  
"I'm not become like you am I?"  
  
"No, I wouldn't be here if you were replacing me." She nodded, and we got to the car. She looked at it, and I got in and unlocked the door. "Well get in, I'm going to be late."  
  
She shrugged. "So what's your name? I'm Darla."  
  
"George."  
  
"And your friend's name?"  
  
"Mason."  
  
"What language do you think in?"  
  
"Uh, English, can we please stop the twenty one questions?"  
  
"Well how am I supposed to get to know you?"  
  
"You're not supposed to get to know me, you're supposed to be moving on."  
  
She sighed, loudly. "Well, this is just no fun."  
  
"I would suspect that the fun part of being dead comes after you cross over."  
  
"You haven't yet?"  
  
"No, that's why I'm undead."  
  
"Oh, I see. So how does the undead thing work?"  
  
"Well, for me I replaced the reaper that took my soul."  
  
She nodded. "So that means that I can't be undead?"  
  
"Yeah, I think it does."  
  
She nodded. "Well that hardly seems fair cause you look like you'd rather be dead dead, and I wanna be undead and I can't."  
  
"Life's not fair."  
  
"This isn't life."  
  
"Then death isn't fair either."  
  
She growled at me. "Well this isn't much fun. Maybe your friend will be more fun!"  
  
I shrugged. "Who knows, well look at that we're almost there, and I have ten minutes to spare before class. I pulled up to the school, and Mason was sitting on the sidewalk. I got out of the car, tossed him the keys, and as we passed by each other, I grabbed him, and kissed him.   
  
"What was that for?" he asked.  
  
"I just felt like it, I'll see you after class, sexy," I whispered in his ear.  
  
"Tonight's gonna be fun Georgie!"  
  
I smiled and went to class. I sat down, and wondered what kind of day Mason would have with Colvin and a wayward soul. I was really glad that I had classes all day that day. My classes actually went pretty well that day. When I was done at school I decided that I didn't really want to go home right away to see how things were working out with Colvin and what had happened with Darla. I passed by the park and sure enough Reggie was there swinging. I walked over to her and she stopped.  
  
"What's up?" I asked her.  
  
"Not too much, my mom got mad at me today for defending my dad," she explained.  
  
"What did she say that made you feel you had to defend him?" I asked.  
  
"She told me that he was having tons of affairs, and I told her that it was all in her head."  
  
If only the poor kid knew the truth about her father. Part of me wanted to tell her about what happened at school the other day, but I decided that what she didn't know wouldn't hurt her.   
  
I half heartedly smiled at her. "I'm sure your mom has her reasons for thinking like that, and you have your reasons for believing that your dad isn't just some regular old guy."  
  
She smiled. "I can see what you're saying, but it's hard to have a different opinion then my mom."  
  
Don't I know it! "I know how that feels, but you have to always remember that they are your parents and they love you."   
  
She hugged me. "I know it's just hard right now. I really should be at home, as much as I don't like being there when they're both there."  
  
I nodded. "Yeah, me too, one of my roommate's cousin's are in town, and I think that my other roommate will need a break."  
  
"Thank you for listening, for what little bit we got to talk."  
  
"I'm always here for you, remember that Reggie."  
  
She nodded, and headed off in the direction of her place. I sat there thinking for a little while, before I decided to go back to my own place. When I opened the door, I was greeted by yelling. Daisy was screaming at Colvin about something. Mason was sitting on the couch. Darla was sitting next to him, trying to cuddle with him, but Mason kept on moving.  
  
"What are you still doing here?" I asked.   
  
"This pace is fun!!" Darla exclaimed. "Although this guy isn't."  
  
"She says she won't go until she has one more, you know, romp in earthly delights."  
  
"Not with my boyfriend you won't! Why don't you go after Colvin?"  
  
"I wouldn't go after that with a twenty foot pole!"  
  
I laughed. "It's good to know that Daisy and I aren't the only ones who don't wanna touch him."  
  
"Keep your filthy little hands off of me! I have a soul to take, now if you'll excuse me!" Daisy yelled, slamming the door in Colvin's face."So I'm not getting my last request?" asked Darla.  
  
"Your only option is Colvin."  
  
She shrugged. "So how does one move on?"  
  
"Well when you're ready you see a light show, and you go toward, and then who knows what happens after that."  
  
A few minutes later she saw the light show, which looked like Woodstock, I thought she was a flower child. Once she was gone I turned to Mason, and we both went up to our room. Unfortunately before we could even kiss Colvin was rapping on the door.   
  
"Get rid of him," I hissed at Mason.   
  
He nodded. "That was the plan Georgie."  
  
"We're busy!"   
  
Instead of doing the polite thing, he opened the door, and walked into the room. "I don't like it when people close their doors, it gives me the creeps," he explained.  
  
"It gives people behind said close door privacy," Mason told him.  
  
"Who needs privacy, it's so overrated."  
  
"In this place we value our privacy, and expect anyone, even unwanted guests to respect our privacy."  
  
He shrugged, and jumped onto the bed. I grumbled, and proceeded to leave the room.   
  
"Georgie! Come back here!" Mason exclaimed, coming after me, Colvin followed. "Look we're going out, don't do anything while we're gone!"   
  
Mason grabbed my hand, and we went out the door. Daisy was sitting in the car, listening to the radio. We got into the backseat.  
  
"I thought you had a soul?" I asked her.  
  
"I lied," she responded. "I'll drive you wherever you want to go!"  
  
"All right."  
  
"I want some time with Georgie, you remember that place I was telling you about earlier today?" Mason asked."Yeah, I remember where you told me it was," Daisy replied.  
  
"Take us there, I think Georgie needs to go."  
  
So I was going with Mason to some mystery destination. Daisy dropped us off and to my surprise we seemed to be at a boxing place of some sort. He took my hand and we walked in. As soon as we did the few people there, turned around to look who was entering.  
  
"Mason!" an older guy exclaimed. "What has it been now ten years?"  
  
"Yeah, probably something like that. This is my girl George, I'm going to help her get some stress out, some people have been bugging her of late."  
  
The guy nodded. "You never change, I swear you have that Dick Clark non-aging gene!"  
  
Mason grinned. "Some of us are just lucky I guess."  
  
He gave us each a pair of gloves, and something to protect your head. Mason also bought some mouth guards, and we proceeded to step into the ring. We still hadn't put in the mouth guards, nor the glove for the hand holding it.  
  
"Have you done this before?" he asked.  
  
"No," I replied.   
  
"It's really easy, you just kind of go around trying to hit me, and block my punches. It gets stress out. Keep it about the belt, and when you think that you're calm, we'll go back home." I nodded, and we both put the rest of the stuff on. I giggled when I saw Mason in the get up, but soon realized that I probably looked just as stupid, if not more. I started punching him, and at first he let me hit him. After a few minutes he started tapping me back, and we had a lot of fun. Neither of us hurt each other, but it really did relive a lot of my stress. I hardly remember that my father had hit on me, or Millie, whoever. I almost forgot that Colvin was going to be staying with us for a little while longer yet, it felt good to be out doing something different with Mason. We stayed there about an hour, until a couple of guys came in and looked like they wanted to fight. We returned the stuff, accept for the mouth guards, and decided to walk home instead of calling Daisy to pick us up. We got outside and he took my hand.  
  
"Feel a little better?" he asked.  
  
"Yeah, I do thank you." I stopped, and leaned over to kiss him. We kissed for a moment before we proceeded on our walk.  
  
"So did you think Darla was hot?" I asked him.  
  
"No, she kinda scared me, I wouldn't have done anything with her even if I wasn't completely in love with you," he answered.  
  
I smiled. "That's nice to know. So how long do you think we'll be stuck with Colvin?"  
  
"Until we tell him to get the fuck out."  
  
"Can we do it when we get home?"   
  
Mason laughed. "We'll give him a couple nights, maybe help prove me wrong."  
  
I shrugged. "I somehow doubt it."  
  
He nodded. "Yeah, we said he could crash there for a little while, so we'll let him stay for a few days, what's the worse that could happen?"  
  
End  
  
End notes: stay tuned for part 13, when the worst does happen when Colvin has been there a week and still doesn't get a clue! How will they ever get rid of him? Will they get Roxy to come back? Keep reading… FYI for anyone who reads this and was wondering about rockstar boy Colt he is coming soon!! He's not going to be an ass like Colvin I promise! Hugz and kissez trista aka the dustytiger 


	13. part 13

TITLE: A Day in the Life of a Grim Reaper; Behind the Cloak and Sickle (Part13of30)  
  
AUTHOR: trista  
  
DISCLAIMER: these characters do not belong to me, they belong to MGM, Showtime, the creator of Dead Like me, and the actors who portray them, please don't sue me, not that I have any money or anything you'd want!   
  
RATING: PG-13 (for language, but the kids these days…)  
  
CONTENT: Reggie/Millie friendship, Mason/George romance  
  
SUMMARY: After a week with Colvin the reapers decide to give him the boot. Reggie finds out about her father's ways. What will Mason and George be up to with the house to themselves?   
  
AUTHORS NOTES: I've been trying forever to incorporate the song I used in this one into a fic, any fic, and I think it fits here. It's not the same without the music, but if it's not findable online ) pm me and I'll somehow get it to you if you really wanna hear it. It's called "in this crowded room" but one of my fave Ottawa bands, Keep Yourself Good Company (yes, yes I know what it sounds like, the name grows on u) for info ! Hope u all like this one… it's a little lovey dovey but it's my fic and I can do whatever I want that's the nice thing about being the author! laugh   
  
If anyone would be so kind as to give me some ideas for death, place and how I'll think of up the rest u can be my new best friend, and get a dedication!!! I'll shut up now, onto the story!!!  
  
I woke up this morning to find that the door to my room had been opened, yet again in the night, and the incessant ringing of the doorbell. Colvin can answer the phone, eat food, take residence in the living room, make rules in a house where he is not welcome, but he cannot open the door to someone that he knows. I growled, slipped on a bathrobe, and went downstairs. Colvin was in the living room, and when I got half way down the stairs, I heard the TV go on. Was he trying to piss me off even more!? Had he been sitting there staring at the door before I came down? I wanted to kick him in the head, but the little ass my enjoy that kind of shit.   
  
"You know you could open the door, you know very well who is there!" I snapped.  
  
"I don't live here," he commented.  
  
"I would have never guessed it the way you've nested in my living room!"   
  
I opened the door, and Rube walked right in, and over to the coffee maker. This has been going on for just over a week now. He doesn't see the point of us all meeting at Der Waffle Haus when his whole team is here anyway. I swear they're probably wondering where the fuck we all are! I proceeded downstairs, then upstairs to wake my real, paying, roommates. We all sat down at the kitchen table, though really it was much to small for all of us. I'd suggest we all go into the living room, but who the fuck knows what Colvin does in the sheets he refuses to move off the couch!  
  
"Good morning, Sunshines!" Rube exclaimed happily, passing around post-its.  
  
Colvin looked at his first. "Fuck Rube! This is in like twenty minutes!"  
  
"Maybe had you opened the door quicker you'd have more time."  
  
Colvin slipped on some clothes and proceeded to run out of the house. I laughed, glad that he was gone. I wondered if Rube had done that purposely somehow. We all poured some coffee, and sat at the table. I didn't even add sugar to my coffee, and I'm pretty sure everyone knew that was a sign that something was wrong.  
  
"What's wrong, Peanut?" asked Rube.  
  
"Why the hell did you stick us with him?" I demanded.   
  
"What do mean?"  
  
"You know exactly what she means Rube!" Daisy snapped. "The guy is a slob, and disgusting!"  
  
"He can't be that bad!"  
  
"Look at our living room!"  
  
"Why is it called a living room anyway. I mean you don't live in a living room, cause that's what you're getting all upset about."  
  
"It's not only that!" Mason quipped  
  
"I have a funny feeling we're going to be playing list the complaints."  
  
"First off he eats all of our food! We bought that food, not him, mister self-righteous won't take from the dead, but sure will sponge off the undead!" I mumbled.  
  
"Look at our living room! We're going to have to burn those sheets and that sofa once he finally get his fat ass out of here!" Daisy added.  
  
"He gets mad when we close doors for fuck's sake!"  
  
"It's very annoying having a shower when there's a man screaming are you all right in there, every two minutes!"  
  
"I'm surprised that he doesn't have us keep all the doors and windows opened!"  
  
"Georgie and I haven't been able to have sex since he got here!" Mason added.  
  
"Too much information, Mason," Rube said. "What it's been a week. It's been months since I've had sex!"  
  
"You're older, Rube, besides, you don't live with your girl!"  
  
"Then be glad for the time you do have together."  
  
"We've barley kissed."  
  
"Such a shame."  
  
I wanted to say something, but figured it was a waste of air. Rube had already made up his mind, that he didn't care what his reaper's sex life was like. Sad that my afterlife sex life is so much better then my real life one. Whatever, it wasn't happening as long as Colvin was here, cause I was not having sex with the door open! The little prev would probably sit downstairs and watch while jacking off! Nasty image! Get it out of my head! Then Daisy said something that startled us all.  
  
"He crawled into my fucking bed last night Rube! He has to go!" she yelled.  
  
"What!?" we all exclaimed at the same time.  
  
"Yes, you heard what you heard. The little bastard actually had the nerve to crawl into my bed last night, and ask how long it had been since I had been with a good jock!"  
  
"I'm going to fucking kick that guy's ass!" Mason screamed.  
  
"All right, so this is a little bit more serious of a situation then I thought."  
  
"Are there like reaper police that you can report him to or some shit?" asked Mason.  
  
Rube chuckled. "Not exactly, but he's been known to pull some pretty strange shit."  
  
"Even in this line of work when you do strange shit like that, you should be fired."  
  
"Yeah, but it doesn't work that. He has to collect his quota, even if he's transferred all around the world."  
  
"One transfer, was quiet enough for me, thank you. They're not very nice about it," Daisy explained.  
  
Rube nodded. "Well your transfer was a little out of the ordinary."  
  
"Yeah, I know, everything about me is though!" She smiled.  
  
"I'd love to stay here and chat it up, but I have a class to get to," I said.  
  
"Oh, Peanut, always looking to make her afterlife more complicated then need be."  
  
"I happen to like going to school, it gets me out of this nut house, and away from you for a little while every day!"  
  
I rolled my eyes, and went upstairs to get dressed. Mason followed me up, and closed the door. He came up behind me and put his arms around my waist. I sighed, glad to feel his arms around me. He then kissed the back of my neck, and I almost moaned. Along with a reaper metabolism, I swear there was reaper horniness. I wished the Rube and Daisy weren't downstairs, I wanted to be with him so bad. It may have been only a week, but it had been a long week where I could have really used some Mason love. I smiled at him.  
  
"I hope he's gone soon, Georgie," he said, kissing my cheek.  
  
"Me too." I turned around and kissed him on the lips.  
  
"Think we can manage a quiet quickie?" His eyes were glimmering with hope.  
  
"A quickie, yes, a quiet one, not a chance in hell, I'm having enough trouble keeping quiet with just this, and this is nothing." He gave me a puppy dog look. "Yes, they'll understand, but they won't want to hear it. Soon, I promise."   
  
He kissed me lightly. "Well off to school now, and don't talk to any strange boys, you hear me?"  
  
I laughed. "There's only room for one strange boy in this heart."  
  
He smiled. "I feel like a fucking prisoner in my own home, I miss Roxy."  
  
I nodded. "Ditto."  
  
"Why don't you just skip classes, and we'll find somewhere nice, and-" I put my finger on his lips.  
  
"I'm paying good money for this, all right, now don't temp me. I want to focus on school this time."  
  
He sighed. "I know, I know! But fuck!"  
  
"Don't say that word!"  
  
He laughed. "I love you Georgie."  
  
"I love you too, now if you don't let me go soon, I'll be late."  
  
I swear he giggled, and then he squeezed me tighter. "You're free to go whenever you want."  
  
I laughed at him. "Mason, seriously, let me go."  
  
He kissed me once more, and then let me go, I went out the door, and walked to school. School was the same as always. When I finished my classes I walked over to where L. Smyth was going to die in five minutes, a street corner, great! I wondered how many times I had sat around at various places looking to see something that would tip me off as to who was going to die, and how many more times I would have to do it.   
  
I looked around and saw a graveling playing near a window. I looked up, and saw a person balancing on a the window sill. Great, a jumper! The guy jumped out the window, and landed on his back. I walked past him and collected his soul. That was odd, he was naked.   
  
"Am I dead?" he asked.  
  
I nodded. "So what's your story?"  
  
He shook his head. "How the hell was a I supposed to know that she was fucking married! Women I knew that they were trouble!"  
  
"Okay, then."  
  
"I've been seeing this chick for like a month now, and you know we've gotten pretty hot and heavy, so today she invites me over to her apartment. We were finally getting somewhere and she tells me that I have to get out of there quick, because her husband is coming. So after she assures me that there is a fire escape on that particular window I jump out, and BAM! I'm dead. This fucking sucks!"  
  
I tried not to laugh at him. "So, I'm George I'll be your grim reaper today!"   
  
He laughed. "I needed that! So what happens now?"  
  
"Have any unfinished business?"   
  
He shrugged. "No, not that I can think of."  
  
"Then you just wait for your light show to come then."  
  
"Light show?"  
  
"I don't know how else to describe it, you just see something that's all lit up, and you go to it, and then you're done."  
  
He nodded. "So how long does this take?"  
  
"Usually not long."  
  
He nodded, and we continued walking, I was on my way home. Just before we got to the park he saw his light show, which seemed to be a forest or something. I had seen way too many of these! I continued walking to the park, and sure enough Reggie was there. I walked over to her, and sat down next to her.  
  
"What my mom says is true," Reggie whispered.  
  
"About what?" I asked.  
  
"About my dad, he is having affairs! He's having affairs with his students!" She started to cry.  
  
"How do you know?"  
  
"He got in trouble for it! The school put a decoy into one of his classes, because they were wondering why so many female students were dropping his classes. It turns out he tries to sleep with them and stuff! For fuck's sake they could be his kids! Did he ever try anything with you?"  
  
I wanted to lie to her, but I couldn't. "Yes, yes he did."  
  
"Why didn't you tell me?"  
  
"He's your father, and it was not my place to tell you. I didn't know if he had done it to students before, or if he was just upset because of the divorce."  
  
She shrugged. "I know you're right, but I kind of wish you had told me."  
  
"Who's to say you would have believed me?"  
  
She nodded. "Growing up sucks!"  
  
"Don't I know it! But you're lucky, you have two parents that love you very much, and you have me who are all going to help you to get through everything just fine."  
  
She smiled. "So I think I know what I want to do when I'm done high school."  
  
"Really?" I was very excited to hear the Reggie actually had some ambition in life.  
  
"I think I want to be a child psychologist."  
  
I smiled. "I think you'd be really good at that!"  
  
"I'm glad someone thinks so, my mom thought I was being silly."  
  
"If that's really what you want to do never let anyone stop you."  
  
"So how are things going with your roommate's cousin?"  
  
"Not well, he seems to have made himself quiet at home."  
  
"That sucks!"  
  
"Big time! I have a funny feeling Mason will be kicking him out soon, if he hasn't already done it."  
  
"I want to move out of my house."  
  
I shook my head. "It's your choice, but my advice is to stay with your parents as long as possible, you don't realize how much you have until it's gone."  
  
"I know, but this is crazy."  
  
"Well eventually your father will find a place, and when you need to get away from one of them, you can just go to the other's house."  
  
"I never thought of that!"  
  
"I mean for you to be in college that'll probably be one of the best things for you. When one place gets too loud, you can go to another. You can get away from whatever is stressing you, and you don't have to pay anything but tuition."  
  
"That's true."  
  
We talked for a little while longer, before I decided to go home to see what had happened with Colvin. When I walked in I was surprised to see that living room was clean. On the kitchen table there were candles, and two place settings facing one another. Mason came out of the kitchen, grinning. He was dressed all in black. I smiled at him.  
  
"He's gone," he told me. "And Daisy is out of the evening, she has a date, which leave the house to us until at least midnight." He picked up the two plates, and went into the kitchen, and came back in with some very delicious looking pasta, chicken and vegetable creation on each other plates.   
  
"Mason, you are right out of a romance novel sometimes, you know that?" He laughed. "Sit, let's eat."  
  
We ate, in silence, although how he had gotten rid of Colvin, but the food was so good I didn't want to talk. We finished up, and he cleared the table, I put on the radio, and he sat down next to me, and put his arm around me.  
  
"So how did you get rid of Colvin?" I asked.  
  
Mason smiled. "It was pretty easy, I told him that having him around was getting me all hot and bothered, and it freaked him out, and he found a new place to squat within an hour."  
  
I laughed. "You're terrible, you know that?"  
  
"As long as you don't believe the lie, then I'm happy."  
  
"Of course not, and if you were then we've been living a lie a very long time." I kissed him lightly.  
  
"True. It's nice to have the place all to ourselves for a change."  
  
"Yeah." I kissed him again, but he pulled away.  
  
"Before we get to carried away, I heard this song today, and I want us to dance to it."  
  
I smiled at him, with the CD player remote control in his hands, took me in his arms, hit play and then tossed the remote onto the couch. I laughed, and we started dancing to the song.  
  
Then a beautiful song came on the radio  
  
a name like a whisper in the wind  
  
a game you cannot win, my strategy is in you  
  
in sleep there's a place where we can hide  
  
from all the time we've tried  
  
we're left senseless and alone  
  
stand absorbed within this crowded room  
  
my thoughts will be with you  
  
to speak  
  
a lack of words won't go  
  
unheard like a cold wind over a ghost town  
  
it's the feeling not the sound  
  
and the cause become the case and he hope to find a place with you  
  
stand absorbed within this crowded room  
  
but this crowded room just insn't crowded anymore  
  
and we look around and we're the only two in here  
  
so many things floating thru our minds  
  
the smile forms across your face  
  
for a moment i found a place that i don't want to leave  
  
but i wake from that dream, back into this world  
  
for a lack of better words, your silence is intriguing my mind  
  
It was a really beautiful song, and when it was over we just stood in each other's arms for a moment. I smiled at him, and he took my hand, and we sat back down on the couch, there were some other, slightly heavier songs on the CD, but I didn't pay much attention to them, and he had turned down the volume.  
  
"Where did you find that song?"  
  
"I was looking for something else when I was making this mix, and I listened to it and I liked it, and for some reason it made me think of you. As soon as I heard it I knew that I wanted to dance with you to it."  
  
"As much as I like this romantic stuff, there are some other things I would like to be doing."  
  
He took my hand and led me upstairs. "As you wish, milady."   
  
End   
  
End notes: so that's part 13... Yikes can u believe I've written 13 parts already??? Up next another time jump! It's going to be either 10 or 20 years I haven't decided yet… if I keep putting indie songs in here I'm gonna have to make a mix cd to send to some ppl laugh I'm so excited to get to the Colt part, but I think I have to do a couple more quick parts first sorry kiddies… hugz and kissez trista aka the dustytiger 


	14. part 14

TITLE: A Day in the Life of a Grim Reaper; Behind the Cloak and Sickle (Part14of30)  
  
AUTHOR: trista  
  
DISCLAIMER: these characters do not belong to me, they belong to MGM, Showtime, the creator of Dead Like me, and the actors who portray them, please don't sue me, not that I have any money or anything you'd want!   
  
RATING: PG-13 (for language, but the kids these days…)  
  
CONTENT: Reggie/Millie friendship, Mason/George romance  
  
SUMMARY: Reggie has some good news for Millie, while Daisy has some bad news for her   
  
AUTHORS NOTES: Moonie's been craking the whip pretty hard, I promised her another part today, and it's still technically Sunday… I hope u all like it! Thank you to those who have given death suggestions and I'll prolly be using them shortly! HUGZ and KISSEZ to everyone who's helped me with this, I really do appreciate it, I'm glad it's been well received! On with the story….  
  
I looked around the coffee shop, and didn't see Reggie, she had just called me asking me to meet her there, she had something to tell me. I got myself a cup of coffee, and sat down, waiting for her. A few minutes later she showed up, and she got herself a coffee, and sat down next to me. She was looked really happy, which would be a surprise to me had she not been a lot happier since she met her boyfriend, Max, about four years ago. He was probably one of the best things that ever happened in her life. They had met her last year of university, and became friends a couple years, and had been dating a couple more.   
  
"So what's up?" I asked her, taking a sip of my coffee.  
  
She grinned. "I just wanted to tell you face to face that I'm going to get married."Good thing I had swallowed my coffee already. I was ecstatic! "Really! I'm so happy for you!" Honestly a part of me wanted to marry Mason, whatever.  
  
She smiled. "I'm so excited, I never thought that I'd actually get married."  
  
"So was he all romantic when he asked you?"   
  
"Yeah, he was. I was having a really bad day, there's this one kid I work with that just gets to me, and I swear he does it cause he knows that it upsets me. Anyway I got home, and he was on the couch, and asked me if I needed a back-rub. The nice thing about dating someone who went thru a massage therapy course, though he never decided to do it as a career is when you're stressed you feel a little better when you don't ache all over. Anyway, so after he gave me a back rub, I asked him what he had in the oven. He actually made me a home cooked meal!"  
  
"Nice!"  
  
"I know!! So anyway after we ate, he's a pretty good cook, I learned. Wish he had decided to cook for me before! We went into the back room, where the TV is, and there is this amazing music playing, really quiet but not classical stuff. On the table there's a bouquet of red roses, and on the one in the middle there's a ring. He looks at me and asks me if I wanted to marry him. I almost died!"  
  
"That's quiet the story you have there."  
  
She grinned. "So do you think you'll ever marry Mason?"  
  
I shrugged. "I don't think so, we're happy with the way things are. I don't know, neither of us have much family, so what's the point of having a big ceremony?"  
  
She nodded. "I guess that makes sense, I always forget that you lost your family."  
  
"So when are you planning on getting married?"  
  
"Probably about six months from now. It'll give us time to get things planned, and it'll be nicer out, so we may be able to have an outdoor wedding. I've always wanted an outdoor wedding."  
  
I nodded. "I don't know, maybe I'm strange but I never really imagined my wedding when I was a kid. My sister used to parade around the living room in old table clothes, and pretend she was getting married, and I just thought she was crazy. I was older then her, but still that was something that I just never did."  
  
Reggie shrugged. "I used to do stuff like that when I was a kid. I don't know, it was just something fun to do. You know?"  
  
"I guess so."  
  
"When I was a kid I used imagine my wedding being in the summer time, and right after we said our vows the clock would chime. I've always liked the way that the big clock in the town center rings. Sometimes I'd even imagine I was in London, and Big Ben would toll right as I'd kiss the guy I was marrying!"  
  
I smiled. "I don't know, I wouldn't want anything too big and fancy even if I did get married. Just something small, in a nice little historic church somewhere. I've always liked churches with history." I thought of this church I saw on some TV show, that had skulls and bones as decoration, now that would be a fitting place to get married if I ever married Mason!  
  
"Oh, and before I forget, I want you to be one of my bride's maids!"  
  
"Really!? That could be fun." All right, that's odd I'm going to be in my sister's wedding but not as her sister, but as her friend.  
  
"I know that you're not into getting all dressed up and stuff, but it would really mean a lot to me."  
  
"No, no I'll be glad to do it. I was just thinking about how I'm never going to be able to see my own sister get married, and that it'll be strange cause you remind me of her."  
  
"Talking about sisters, I'm going to do something in George's memory, light a candle or something like that."  
  
I'm glad she thought of me like that, I somehow don't think my mother will be big on the idea, good thing it's not her wedding. "That's a really nice idea."  
  
"I thought so, I mean I know it's been fifteen years now, but I still miss her, and it'll be strange not having her around on my wedding day. She meant a lot to me, and I've dealt with the issues that I had about the way she died when I was a kid. It just feels like something that I should do."  
  
I nodded. "I think that it's really amazing that you thought of that, because I know a lot of people would want people they loved who had passed on to be involved in some way."  
  
"I'm thinking just before it starts to say a little something, for people who don't know who she was, you know? Then we'll light the candle and say that it represents her soul being there."  
  
If only she knew the truth about me! "I don't know what else to say, it's an amazing idea."  
  
"You know what's going to suck about this, everyone's going to think that you look almost younger then me! It's not fair, you never seem to age!"  
  
I shrugged. "I'm just lucky I guess."  
  
"I've know you for fifteen years, and I swear you have never changed, and from the pictures of Mason I've seen he hasn't changed either. It hardly seems fair."  
  
"I guess we're both lucky, but keep in mind we don't have kids, what we do hardly classifies as work, and we have no money problems. Why would we stress out and look older then we should?"  
  
"I guess you're right. It's just an observation someone made the other day."  
  
"What are you talking about?"  
  
"It's silly really, one of my friends walked by here the other day, and looked in, and walked off. I noticed her and when I comforted her about walking away she said that she thought I was talking with my little sister and didn't want to interrupt."  
  
"Your little sister? I highly doubt I could actually pass as your little sister, your friend just saw me out of the corner of her eye, and you know how that can be. When you go to check someone out cause you just kinda see a profile of them, then you look and you're like, um, yuck!"  
  
"I guess I just find it hard to believe that you're 31."  
  
"And you're 26, what's your point? Age is just how you feel."  
  
She smiled. "I guess you're right."  
  
"Don't let it bother you!"  
  
I looked at my watch. "As much as I'd love to stay and girl talk some more, I have to be somewhere in twenty minutes."  
  
"It's okay, I'll call you when I know when the rest of the girls want to go look at dresses and stuff."  
  
I nodded, and took my half full coffee cup, and went out the door. I looked at the post-it, and realized that I this one was going to happen in a house. I wondered how I would get at the soul. As I walked up a bunch of girls came giggling up the driveway. I wondered if any of them were P. Clarke, I thought of a plan to get their names. I took out a notebook that was in my bag.  
  
"Sorry to bother you," I said, coming up to them. "My name's Millie, and I'm doing some a survey for my college newspaper, I was wondering if you could help me."  
  
"Sure!" said one of the girls, they couldn't be more then fourteen.  
  
"First I'll need all your names, I probably won't use them, but just in case I need to quote I can."  
  
They all nodded. "I'm Deena Smith, this is Ruth Burns, this is Tina Black, and the birthday girl here is Paula Clarke," said the same girl as before.  
  
"I nodded, perfect. So there's only four questions, the first three are yes or no, the last is opinion, and that's what I might quote." They all nodded. "Question the first, have you ever drank to the point of being drunk?"  
  
"Yes!" they all replied with a giggle.  
  
"Remember, your parents will never see this, and I won't use last names, only possibly initials. "Have you ever smoked pot?"  
  
"Yes," said Ruth.  
  
"No," replied Deena.  
  
"No," Paula said.  
  
"Yup," giggled Tina.  
  
"Have you every tried, intentionally anything strong then pot?"  
  
"Nope!" they all said in unison.   
  
"Do we look stupid?" Deena asked.   
  
I smiled. "Finally, and you don't have to answer this if you don't want to. Do you think that at your high school drugs and alcohol are a problem in the classroom?"  
  
"A lot of kids I know do it, and come to class when they are drunk or stoned. I find it irritating because it's already people who don't want to be in class, and act out all that much more, and the teachers can't do much unless they catch the kid red handed," explained Paula.  
  
"Yeah, it's really stupid cause a kid can come to class totally reeking of week, and the teacher actually has to find some on them in order to suspend or expel them. I don't have a problem with people doing it or anything, but at school it's stupid because you can't do that when you get a job or you get fired, but at school it's just something that's kind of the norm now."  
  
I wrote down what they had said, wishing that I really was writing the article, but how were they to know, they would have bigger problems in about five minutes. "Thank you for your time," I said, shaking all of their hands, taking Paula's soul in the process.   
  
Moments later I could hear screaming from inside the house. It seemed that Paula had slipped on her little brother's toy car, and went flying down the basement stairs, which were uncarpeted concrete, smacked her head. Poor kid, a lost soul didn't come out of the house, I waited for ten minutes, before going home. When I got there Daisy greeted me with a bowl of popcorn, and there were some movies in her hand.  
  
"What's going on?" I asked.  
  
"I know this is breaking girls night rules, but I've just been informed that I'm taking my last soul tomorrow, and I wanted this last girls night to be memorable. I picked a couple of movies that I want you to see, that I know you'll just love! The no talking rule has been put aside for obvious reasons. I thought popcorn would be a good snack food, classic."  
  
I didn't know how to respond to what she had just told me. "Oh, all right."  
  
"Don't be upset when I leave tomorrow all right Georgia? Be happy for me, and I know that after your last soul is taken, we'll see each other again."  
  
I nodded. "So in other news, one of my friend is getting married!"  
  
"Oh that's wonderful, I wish I could be there to help you get dressed, but I think that I have given you enough tips on how to look beautiful to manage all by yourself."  
  
I nodded. "You have given me more tips then I could ever use."  
  
She laughed. "A girl can never have enough beauty tips."  
  
I decided not to fight with her that night. It was our last girl's night after all and I didn't want to fill it up with petty arguments. We decided to sit in the living room, as Mason had learned not to intrude a long time ago. Daisy put in the first movie, and we began to watch it. It was pretty funny, and I'm pretty sure I had seen it before.  
  
"It's amazing," Daisy said. "When I died I thought that everything was perfect in my life, and I didn't care that I didn't have any real friends, and I'd just do sex acts for people accept me. When I first became a reaper I was terrible to the people who's souls I took. I was more interested in my problems then theirs. I was so mad that I didn't get a chance to be in Gone with the Wind. All I ever thought about was myself. Even up to the time when I got transferred, I didn't much care about anything but me. Then I met you, and you were like a sister or something, and I just had to be friends with you. I know that we started off like oil and water, but I'm glad that I met you. I'm glad you showed me that you can live a little even in your afterlife."  
  
I smiled. 'I'm glad I could help you with that."  
  
"When Rube told me today that tomorrow was going to be my last soul, I was really surprised that my first thought was that I had to do something for Georgia before I go. So I deiced to organize this all by myself. When the movie are over I made some pasta, that just needs to be heated up!"  
  
I was actually really surprised that she had thought that. I didn't really notice how much she had changed until then. I thought back to the first time we met, and she seemed almost like a different person. Sure she took stuff from the dead, but she didn't take everything could get her paws on. She no longer plotted and schemed, and from what I've heard she did that a lot before she came to join this group.   
  
I really was going to miss her. She was my first roommate, and she really did help somehow in my getting over Betty. I did think of her kind of like a big sister. I wished when I was kid to have a big sister like her. Pretty, smart, and always giving me advise on boys, and make up and other girl stuff my mother refused to talk about. Daisy really did do that for me, even if at the point in my life she did I didn't give two shits about the stuff she was telling me.   
  
I just hoped that whoever replaced her wasn't like that little prick Colvin, I can't believe that we're still stuck with him! He's calmed down a little, but I think it was because he was afraid of getting transferred somewhere that he didn't want to be. After the first movie, Daisy and I just talked about all the stuff we had done together since we had known each other. We talked until the early morning, and I was glad that I didn't really have anything to do the next day.   
  
When I crawled into bed the clock read 4:30, and that meant that it was only a few hours before we would have to meet Rube at Der Waffle Haus, and about twelve hours from that time Daisy would be gone, and some new person, would have taken her place. I hoped that the person replacing her was girl, because if it was a guy I would go nuts being the only girl in the group. I curled up to Mason, and fell asleep moments later.  
  
End  
  
End notes: colt is not daisy's replacement, just so you know, I thought it was about time that she got relieved of her duties she's been reaping a long time. I'll deal with Rube's time of being a reaper in the next time jump, among other things. There'll prolly be two more parts in this time frame, dealing with Daisy's replacement, and another six months from that dealing the Reggie's wedding, and it will deal once and for all with the Millie not aging issue… please tell me what you think trista aka the dustytiger 


	15. part 15

TITLE: A Day in the Life of a Grim Reaper; Behind the Cloak and Sickle (Part14of30)  
  
AUTHOR: trista  
  
DISCLAIMER: these characters do not belong to me, they belong to MGM, Showtime, the creator of Dead Like me, and the actors who portray them, please don't sue me, not that I have any money or anything you'd want!   
  
RATING: PG-13 (for language, but the kids these days…)  
  
CONTENT: Reggie/Millie friendship, Mason/George romance  
  
SUMMARY: We meet Daisy's replacement, will they get along? Reggie has some more news for Millie, and George and Rube have a nice little chat.  
  
AUTHORS NOTES: so here's the next part, thanks to everyone who's given me some advise on this I really appreciate it, and all the kind words. I never would have thought I'd be writing such a long series, but I think I'm getting to the end. It's two am I need some sleep… on with the fic….  
  
We all woke up fairly early, so that we could have breakfast together for the last time. It was a little strange, because Daisy didn't seem upset that she was going to be going elsewhere. Maybe she no longer fears death, since she's been around it for so long. Maybe it was all in my head, but I thought that there would be no way that I would be that calm on my last day as a reaper. After we ate we all went down to the Der Waffle Haus where Rube and Colvin were already sitting, waiting for us. We all sat down, and Rube handed out the post-its like normal. Maybe he had made a mistake and it wasn't today that Daisy was to take her last soul. I looked at my post-it and wondered how long it would be before I would see my last one.  
  
"Are you hungry Daisy?" Rube asked.  
  
"No, we all ate at the house," she replied.  
  
He nodded, well your last soul is going to, die, or not, in about half an hour, let's go."  
  
"Why do you need to go?"  
  
"Who else can explain to that person what's going on?"  
  
She shrugged. "I forgot."   
  
He smiled. "It's all right, well let's go Daisy."   
  
As she was leaving she looked at me, and then I stood up, and hugged her. Neither of us cried, though I knew that we both wanted to. "I'll never forget you Georgia, and never forget me."  
  
"In a hundred years I could never forget the one Daisy Adire."  
  
She smiled. "Goodbye, Mason, it's been fun." She actually hugged him. "Goodbye Colvin." She shook his hand, and she and Rube left.   
  
"So what do you think the new reaper will be like?" asked Colvin.  
  
I shrugged. "I've gotta be somewhere," I mumbled, leaving  
  
I was walking down the street I heard Mason running up behind me. "Georgie! Georgie! We need to talk!"   
  
I turned around, and began to cry. "I don't want to talk about it, Mason."  
  
He hugged me. "Just tell me when you are all right, I can't stand to see you hurting."  
  
"Look, I really want to go somewhere, and I want to be alone for a little bit."  
  
"All right, whatever you want."   
  
I felt bad blowing him off like that, but I needed to deal with this, in my own way. I went to the park where I used to meet with Reggie, and I sat on the bench, and I began to cry. I looked at my watch, and knew that she was gone, and someone new had replaced her. I didn't want her to be replaced, I wanted her. I wanted my friend back! It wasn't fair! Why did I have to loose someone else in my life? Daisy and I had our differences, but for the most part we were close friends, almost like sisters, and I didn't want to loose that. But I never had a choice in the matter. I was fate's bitch, and it would dangle something in front of me just long enough to make me think I was happy, and would be for a long time, and then it would be taken away from me.  
  
I thought that the hardest thing that I would have to deal with as a reaper was losing Betty, I never thought that anyone else in the group would get their last soul. Call it naive, but I thought that three of us would get our last souls on the same day, and we'd brave whatever happened to lay before us together. Part of me wished I had been a religious person when I was alive, because maybe religion could help to explain what was going on. Of course I think if I was a religious person in life I would not have dealt with my after life very well.   
  
I knew that this was part of life, but it had been a while since I had lost anyone, and it really hurt. Whenever I lost someone I always wished that I had more warning. At least when my grandmother died when I was a kid I knew that he had been sick, so I could kind of prepare myself for it, but of late whenever tragedy struck it was sudden, and I didn't like it.   
  
For fuck's sake I had died, or became undead at the age of 18, and I had been a reaper 15 years, which meant that anything of significance that happened in my life I could not tell people how long it had been because they wouldn't believe. When I told some people that I was in love with Mason, the laughed it off as puppy love, and I couldn't very well tell people that I had lived with him for fifteen years cause they'd think I was crazy or something. Even if they thought I was twenty five I would still be too young to have a relationship of substance, save a best friend, which had lasted that long.   
  
There was also the problem that sooner or later I would have to stop being friends with Reggie, because she was already starting to get suspicious about the fact that I never look older. I didn't know how I was going to stop being friends with her, but I knew that some day I would simply have to. Being undead really did suck! Jesus fucking Christ I was so confused, I just needed time to think. Why did I have to go and become a reaper? I spent a little while longer at the park before going home.   
  
When I got home Mason was on sitting on the couch, and I could tell that he had been crying. I sat next to him and he hugged me, and I started sob.  
  
"It's going to okay, Georgie," he tried to assure me.  
  
"It's going to be so strange around here without her."  
  
"Yeah, it is, but I'm sure we'll get used to it."  
  
I nodded. "I know, but I'm still going to miss her."  
  
The phone rang, and he answered. "Hello?" He nodded, and then turned to me. "Rube wants us to meet him at Der Waffle Haus, this can't be a good sign about the new reaper."  
  
We got in the car, and went over to Der Waffle Haus. Inside Rube was sitting with a girl with short spiked hair, with her eye brow, and labret pierced, and I was pretty sure she had some other places that we couldn't see. We went inside to join him, I sat next to Rube, and Mason sat next to her.  
  
"Hello hottie!" she exclaimed.  
  
"Uh, I'm spoken for," he replied.   
  
"Obedient little lap dog aren't you?"  
  
"Just monogamous."  
  
"Where's the fun in that?"  
  
"Mason meet Anika," Rube said, his hand on his temple, taking a sip of coffee.  
  
"Who's the chick?" she asked.  
  
"I'm George, Mason's, girlfriend," I replied.  
  
"Girlfriend, that's so high school!"  
  
I shrugged. "Whatever."   
  
I hated her. She was after my guy, and she looked like she was almost thirty and still into the punk look. The waitress came by and I ordered a coffee, I would need as much caffeine as I could get if I had to spend any amount of time with her.  
  
"Uh, hello!?" Anika screamed. "What about me!! That's twice you haven't seen my bitch!"  
  
"I told you already she can't see you," Rube explained.  
  
"Then why the fuck can these two see me?"  
  
Rube sighed. "They're grim reapers."  
  
"How many are there?"  
  
"A lot, I can't say exactly how many, but there are groups like this in every part of the world, some places are bigger some are smaller."  
  
She nodded. "So why are you telling me all this?"  
  
"Because you're going to be a reaper."  
  
"Why am I become a reaper?"  
  
"Because the person who took your soul was a reaper, and you were the last soul that she took, and you have to replace her."  
  
"What if I don't want to."  
  
"You're fucked, you don't have a choice in the matter," I muttered, Mason laughed.  
  
"What does that mean?"  
  
"It means," said Rube. "That this is not something that you have a choice in the matter. When you become a reaper you have a certain amount of souls you have to collect before you can make the final transition. You don't know how many souls you have to collect, but you know who is your last one. The last soul you takes becomes the next reaper."  
  
"So I'm alive?"  
  
"Not exactly, you're undead."  
  
She shrugged her shoulders. "And there's no way I can get out of it?"  
  
"I'm afraid not, ask Peanut the tricks she tried that failed when she first started."  
  
I glared at him. The waitress came back with our drinks, and I was glad for the coffee. Anika tried to take the coffee, but as she was still technically just a soul, her hand went right though it. She looked pretty pissed off about it. I shrugged, and wondered why we had to be there to meet her, when Colvin was nowhere to be found. I really hoped that Rube was thinking of having her stay with us. I was still pretty pissed off about the time that he had Colvin squat with us!  
  
"When's your next appointment, Peanut?" Rube asked.  
  
"In about an hour," I replied.  
  
"Good, I want you to take Anika with you, so that she can see what we do. When you're done come back here."  
  
I nodded, and finished my coffee. "Mason, I'm taking the car."  
  
"All right Georgie, see you later." He kissed me and I left.  
  
I got into the car, and Anika got in next to me. I don't know how that works with her not being able to touch things, but I guess if you can walk you car ride.   
  
"So how long have you been a reaper?" Anika asked.  
  
"Fifteen years."  
  
"Shit, you started young then!"  
  
I gave her a strange look. "Oh, no we don't age, I was 18 when I was killed, and I guess I'll be 18 till I take my last soul."  
  
"Oh, I see."  
  
"You still have a lot to learn."  
  
"Yeah, I'm starting to see that."  
  
I smiled. "Don't worry it's not so bad. So how did you die?"  
  
"I was in the wrong place at the wrong time."  
  
I laughed. "Aren't we all. I got killed by a toilet seat from the space shuttle."  
  
"Mine wasn't quiet that bad. This kid was playing with a gun in his house, the thought it didn't have bullets in it. He aimed at me, pulled the trigger, and low and behold there were bullets in it."  
  
"Tell me again why guns are legal in this country."  
  
She laughed. "So how long have you been seeing Mason?"  
  
"About fifteen years now."  
  
She nodded. "So where are we going?"  
  
"To a grocery store on the other side of town, where K. Foster is going to die."  
  
"How?"  
  
"Don't know yet, all we know is the name, location and estimated time of death, ETD. We go to the location at around the time, and then we look for risk factors, and try to blend in."  
  
"Risk factors?"  
  
"Anything that looks like it could be potentially dangerous. Then around the time of the accident you see who's around the biggest risk factor, and you take their soul."  
  
"How do you do that?"  
  
"By touching them."  
  
"Couldn't we technically take anyone's soul?"  
  
I shrugged. "From what I understand you can only take souls that you are meant to take. Once you're assigned a soul no one else can take it. There are times when reapers have taken a soul and put it back, but there are big consequences for doing that."  
  
She nodded. "I see."  
  
"The whole thing makes more sense once you've been doing it a while, trust me."  
  
"So Rube said something about asking you about what you did?"  
  
"I tried to get out of it. It doesn't work. There are some loopholes, but again there are consequences. If you don't go get the soul, the soul stays in the body until you do. Stuff like that."  
  
We got to the grocery store, and I took a cart so I'd blend in. There was twenty minutes until K. Foster was going to die. I figured since I had some time to kill I'd just do some grocery shopping. I got what I needed, and went to the aisle where it was going to happen with five minutes to spare. I looked around.  
  
"Would, that stack of boxes be a risk factor?" asked Anika.  
  
"You're good at this, I'd say it's a big risk factor. They shouldn't be there, and I'd say they're full, and they look pretty unstable."  
  
She smiled. "Maybe I have a knack for this sort of thing."  
  
There was one woman coming down the aisle, pretty fast, not paying any attention. Looking everywhere but in front of her. As she passed me I touched her shoulder, and took her soul. She ran right into the boxes, I backed up, and the fell all over her. Crushing her instantly, I don't think she felt any pain. I went to the checkout and paid for the stuff I had picked up, and returned to Der Waffle Haus, where it was Mason's turn to show Anika his tricks. Sometime between when we left and came back, Anika had gotten a physical form, and was able to get a drink before she went with Mason. I trusted her slightly more after hanging out with her.   
  
I decided to call Reggie, and see what she was up to. We met there, and Rube had left, and told Mason that he'd be around the house. I don't know why he'd want to meet up there, but whatever. Reggie showed up, and ordered pancakes, while I got some fries.  
  
"So what's up?" she asked me.  
  
"Not too much, just wanted to talk a little about your wedding because we got cut short yesterday," I replied.  
  
"Yeah, I'm glad. In all the fuss yesterday I forgot to tell you something. After we get married we're going to move to London for work!"  
  
"Really, I'm gonna miss you!'  
  
"I'm going to miss you too, but it's a great opportunity for us both, and I'm really excited about it!" "Then I'm happy for you!" I was very relieved, if they stayed in London we wouldn't have to see each other, and we could continue being friends. It was the best news I had received all day!  
  
"I'm so glad, I was worried, you'd try to talk me out of it."  
  
"Why would I do that? If you think it's for the best, then go for it. You'll make new friends there, and I'm sure your family can visit, and you can visit them."  
  
She shrugged. "I know."  
  
"So back to the wedding, what are you going to about your parents?"  
  
"They said that they'd behave seeing as it's their only daughter's wedding. Well, you know what I mean the only daughter that can have a wedding."  
  
I nodded. "That's good then. What do they think of the candle thing?"  
  
"My dad really likes the idea, my mom on the other hand hates it. But she told me that since it was my wedding and I could do as I pleased, even if that meant depressing everyone on such a happy day."  
  
"How would that be depressing?"  
  
"I don't know, I mean it's not like I'm going to say how she died or anything."  
  
I laughed. "So what are you going to say."  
  
"I don't know something along the lines of, this candle represents the sprit of my sister, George, who was tragically killed when she was eighteen. She meant a lot to me, and I could not bare to not have her involved in my wedding, and this was the best way I could think of."  
  
I smiled. "That's really sweet."  
  
"So I talked to the other girls that are going to be in the bridal party, and they've deiced that they want to go shopping on the second Saturday of next month. Is that good for you"  
  
"Yeah, it should be. I may have an appointment at some time that day, but I'll try and work around it."  
  
"You have a lot of appointments at strange times."  
  
"I know, I hate it but such is life."  
  
I never told Reggie what the appointments were for, and she never asked, I was glad because I don't think I could think of a lie that would make sense. We talked for a little while longer, before she had to go meet with Max. I went back to the house, and a few minutes later Rube pulled up. I let him in, and we sat down in the living room.  
  
"How are you with all of this Peanut?" he asked me.  
  
"I'm upset because I miss Daisy, but I know that it's just part of this, and I can accept. I'm dealing with it my own way."  
  
"What do you think of Anika?"  
  
"She seems nice enough, she could loose the punk look though."  
  
He laughed. "We'll work on that, let's start with making her a good reaper."  
  
"I think she'll be pretty good, she spotted what was going to kill the person before I did."  
  
Rube nodded. "That's good information to know."  
  
"Does it mean anything?"  
  
"Probably not, but it's good to know that she has some kind of knack for this. I hope Mason isn't teaching her too many of his bad habits."  
  
I laughed. "Probably not, just showing her how to pick pockets."  
  
"I suppose it can be a useful tool.""Having done the day job thing, I have to admit it's much easier."  
  
"So what are you planning on doing next?"  
  
"I'm thinking of taking some more courses, if money allows."  
  
"That could be interesting."  
  
"Yeah, I figure I may as well take advantage of looking like a college student, right?"  
  
"I'm glad that you're starting to feel better about this whole thing."  
  
"Yeah, me too, cause by the looks of things I'm in it for the long haul."  
  
"You get to see things that most people never do, and just think of what you've learned when it's all said and done."  
  
I nodded. "Very true, I think that I'm probably a better person having been undead."  
  
"I think that's why we're chosen to do things. Our number may be up, but there is something we have yet to learn. I've seen a lot of reapers come and go, and none have been the same when they started as when they left." I smiled, maybe he was onto something. Mason came back a little while later, and explained to us that he had found Anika a little apartment, and told him where it was. Rube left, and Mason and I went upstairs.  
  
End  
  
End notes: should I do one of Reggie's wedding, or about her leaving? I don't really know, I kinda wanna skip ahead to the next one, but tell me what you think. What do you think of Anika? Feedback would be nice hugz and kissez trista aka the dustytiger 


	16. part 16

TITLE: A Day in the Life of a Grim Reaper; Behind the Cloak and Sickle (Part16of30)  
  
AUTHOR: trista  
  
DISCLAIMER: these characters do not belong to me, they belong to MGM, Showtime, the creator of Dead Like me, and the actors who portray them, please don't sue me, not that I have any money or anything you'd want!   
  
RATING: PG-13 (for language, but the kids these days…)  
  
CONTENT: Reggie/Millie friendship, Mason/George romance  
  
SUMMARY: We learn a little about Anika's past, and it's Reggie's wedding day!!   
  
AUTHORS NOTES: this is the last part in this time jump folks!! Hehe… it's a little hard to write a fic when you kitty has decided to take residence ontop of the monitor, and insists upon hanging down and trying to catch the cursor. Thank you for all the kind words, keep 'em coming please, and on with the story!!!!! Insert kermit the frog style "yay!!" here!  
  
"Fuck! I'm never going to make it there in time!" I exclaimed.  
  
"Where' the car?" asked Rube.   
  
"it's getting fixed," Mason replied.  
  
"And here I thought whenever a car gave you trouble you just got a new one."  
  
"Thanks, Rube, sometimes we like something enough to want to keep it. Besides we haven't had the car more then two months, so would we get rid of it."  
  
"I can drive, you, if you'd like George, mine's not for another few hours," Anika offered.  
  
"Thank you, I'd really appreciate that. At least someone around here is nice. I'll buy you your breakfast as payment for your gas."  
  
She smiled. "Thanks."   
  
"No problem."  
  
A few minutes later the waitress came back, and I paid for both of our meals, and we got into her car, and she drove me to where N. Laroches was going to die. It was a pretty long walk, and I realized that I had not really talked to Anika since she joined us about six months ago. She had toned down her look a bit, she had taken out her labret and eyebrow rings, but still had a tongue stud. She kept the short spiked hair, and dressed a little less Goth. I know Rube was glad about the change. For the most part she was very nice, but when something go to her she could be a bitch.   
  
"So George, we don't talk much do we?" she asked me.  
  
"No, not really," I replied.  
  
"I find that odd because we're the only two girls on the team, and we shouldn't be at odds with each other."  
  
I shrugged. "I don't have anything against you, the opportunity for any real discussion has never really come up." "I think you still resent the fact that I took your friend's place. I know that you and Daisy were close, Rube told me."  
  
I nodded. "Yeah, we were, I really miss her."  
  
"That's understandable, but I don't see why because of that you're putting up a wall between us. Maybe you're not doing it consciously, but sub-consciously you are putting up barriers between us, and I think that we really should try to be friends."  
  
I nodded. "Where do we start?"  
  
Just then someone cut her off. "You little fuck!" She yelled out the window. "Learn how to fucking drive, and if you can't drive park your damn SUV!"  
  
I looked at her, quizzically and a little frightened, she turned to me and smiled, and proceed to give the finger to the driver who had cut her off.  
  
"I'm sorry, George, when someone pisses me off, I tell them that they have. I had to do that when I was growing up, so I always do now," she explained to me.  
  
I nodded. "I understand I guess."  
  
"I don't tell my life story to just anyone, but you seem trust worthy. I never knew my parents, they abandoned me when I was just a baby. I'm sure they had their reasons, and part of me wanted to find them and ask them why they didn't want me." "That must be horrible," I commented, and I was a rebellious teen cause my mother admitted she loved me, the world sure is fucked up.  
  
"So I guess I really was un ugly baby and I lived at state children homes, which is just the politically correct way of saying orphanage. I suppose I could have grown up in worse circumstances, I was never abused while I was there, and I always had food and clothing. It's not exactly the most loving environment, but it teaches you to look out for yourself. I learned that less young and quick."  
  
I nodded. "I never realized how lucky I was."  
  
"When I turned nine they decided to start putting me into foster homes, which I guess is to show you what a loving family functions like, but for me it was like being pass around like a pet. At first everywhere I went with my new family there was a big fuss about me, then when that died down, they started to realize that I had some issues, and would ship me back to where I came from, where I would be placed with another new family."  
  
"So did anyone ever want to adopt you?"  
  
"There was this one woman, she was a young widow, who always wanted children, and since her husband passed, and she would not get remarried she decided to foster children. I was the first child she was set to adopt, but I guess the agency thought that at eleven I was a little old, and had a few too many problems for a young widow to deal with, and talked her into taking a younger child, who was a little easier to handle. I heard later that she adopted another child, and she was very happy, and the kids were very well rounded. After that whole idea of finding a family didn't seem very appealing to me, so I just gave up. Coming from that background you'd be hard pressed to find a person who wasn't a bit rough around the edges when someone rattled her chains."  
  
"Was there anyone, ever in your life that you ever cared about?" I had always wondered why she didn't go to her own funeral, she had told me that she wasn't important enough to have one.  
  
"There was one little girl, I call her my niece, she was my next door neighbor's daughter. A beautiful little girl, named Brooke-Lyn. She was born the day after I moved into my first place when I was sixteen. Her mom wasn't the most fit mother in the world, but she loved her, and would ask me to babysit so that I could have some money of my own. As the years went on we got really close, and I miss her a lot. She's so smart, she's going to make something of her life."  
  
"That's quiet the story you've got there, it makes me feel like a spoiled little brat!"  
  
She laughed. "You never know what you can survive until you live it."  
  
I nodded, and we soon got to the spot where N. Laroches was going to die, just near a lake. This should be interesting. I went over to where the harbor master was. I smiled at him.  
  
"Millie!" he exclaimed. "You haven't been here for a sailing lesson in ages!"  
  
"I'm not here for a sailing lesson, sadly."  
  
"That's a shame, you had quiet a knack for it."  
  
"I don't have much time for sailing with school, work, and my fiancé."  
  
"What a busy life you lead. So what brings you out on this lovely day?"  
  
"I am supposed to meet with the Laroches, they were to be coming in and docking here for a little while."  
  
"I've met them, a nice young couple. They came in last night, and will be staying for about a week. You're lucky they're planning on going off for a romantic tour in a few minutes, they're docked at number 12."  
  
"Thank you, and when I have time I'll come by for some sailing, maybe I'll bring my fiancé."  
  
"All right, I hope to see you soon."  
  
I walked down to the dock with Anika. I went over to their boat, and admired it, it was a pretty nice boat, a pontoon, that they had painted black, and the seats were gray.  
  
"This is a beautiful boat," I said.  
  
"You like boats?" the man, who was no more then twenty five asked.  
  
"Yeah, when I was a kid my dad used to take me and my brother fishing, taught us about all kinds of boats, and this here is one of the nicest boats I've ever seen!"  
  
"I'm glad you like it, we got it custom made!" explained the woman, with a deep south accent.  
  
"I'd imagine to get something like this you would have to. I'm Millie, by the way, and this is my good friend Ani."  
  
"Nice to meet you, I'm Nat and this is Mike," she said.  
  
I shook their hands taking her soul as I did. "This really is an amazing machine!"  
  
"I know that we southerners are known for our hospitality, but we're just about to head out for a little trip, but you come back later tonight, and we'll talk some more."  
  
"That sounds great! Thank you so much, see you later Mike and Nat!"  
  
Anika and I walked away, and soon as they were out of sight Mike drowned her. I looked out onto the lake, and saw a staircase going into the clouds, at least she was quick to move on, and she seemed to be going to heaven. I smiled, and walked back to the car. What a day this was going to be, start it off at a beautiful marina, and end it up at church. I loved my sister, but I wished she had deiced to have her wedding outside after all. The weather would have been prefect for it.  
  
"Anika could you do me a huge favor and drop me off at St. Mary's?" I asked on the way back.  
  
"Yeah, of course, why are you going to a church?"  
  
"A friend of mine is getting married today."  
  
"Does Rube know about it?"  
  
"Yeah that's why he gave me the post it he did." All right so I hadn't told him the whole truth, but what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him. Technically to Millie Reggie was just a friend, so I hadn't exactly lied.  
  
"Oh all right, he just seems like the type of person that gets pretty pissy when someone sneaks around behind his back."  
  
I smiled. "I've incurred the wrath of Rube before, trust me, I don't sneak around anymore."  
  
She nodded, and on the way back we talked about my life, I thought it only fair since she had shared her life story with me. She pulled up in front of the church, and I ran into the bride's room.   
  
"I'm so sorry, Reggie," I said as soon as I walked in.  
  
"It's all right, all that matters is you're here, and you actually called me to tell me that you were going to be running late."  
  
"Yeah, sorry, sometimes my job is just so stupid!"  
  
"It's okay really, I'm really disappointed that Mason won't be here."  
  
"Yeah, well he's got lots of stuff to do, plus he said he'd feel weird in place where he didn't really know anyone. He appreciated that you invited him though."  
  
"I'm glad you told me to bring your dress now," Reggie laughed, handing me a garment bag. "Now go get changed, I want you all changed before you get to see my dress on."  
  
"Where's your mother?"  
  
"She's around. Believe it or not I think she's trying to calm down my father."  
  
Strangeness abound! I hadn't seen my parents get along since Reggie took her first steps, but I'm told weddings bring out the best in people. I went into a subsection of the room and got changed. I looked in the mirror and I didn't look that bad in the light blue dress she had picked out. I came out, and all the other girls were grinning at me.  
  
"You all look so good!" Reggie exclaimed. "My turn, Millie could you go find my mother?"  
  
"I haven't seen her in ages, I doubt I'd recognize her!"  
  
"Fine, fine, then you go please Lea."  
  
"Sure," said the girl who must be Lea, and she quickly darted out of the room.Suddenly that Sesame Street song, one of things doesn't belong here, thing jumped into my head. I felt really out of place. All the girls were so much younger then me, though they looked older. I didn't know any of them, and what was an undead girl doing being a bride's maid at a wedding anyway? A few minutes later Lea came back with my parents.  
  
"Is everyone ready?" Reggie asked.  
  
"Yes," was the chorus.   
  
She came out, and she looked beautiful. I almost cried, I still found it hard to believe that she was my little sister! I had to remember to react like a friend, and I kept my cool. The dress was long and flowing, with a long train, and sleeveless, which was handy with the weather being warm, and the church not being air conditioned. After a little while the ceremony started, and it was pretty typical of a wedding, save the candle lighting thing for me. That was really odd to witness cause I knew that the spirit of George was there. A few people shed tears at that part, but quickly regained composure till the end.  
  
After the ceremony we went to this nice little park on the way to the reception hall for pictures. When it was all done I never wanted to see a camera again, and I wasn't in a lot of the pictures. I decided then that no matter how much I loved Mason I would never go thru all that shit, just to show off to our few friends that we were really in love.   
  
The reception was a lot of fun, though I felt like a loser not dancing with anyone. I ended up catching the bouquet, which I'm pretty sure Reggie rigged, because she had been bugging me about Mason and I just living together almost since she had gotten engaged. After the reception she pulled each girl aside, because after the honeymoon they were moving right away.   
  
"I'm going to miss you Millie," she whispered hugging me.  
  
"I'm going to miss you too, kiddo, but it's what's best for you."  
  
She smiled. "I know, it's just going to be strange not having you a phone call away."  
  
"I still will be we just won't be able to meet."  
  
She started to cry. "It's going to get some getting used to, I'm really going to miss our chats in the park."  
  
I began to cry too. "Yeah, me too, but this is what life is all about Reggie. You are one of the best friends I've ever had, and I'm not going to let a little thing like an ocean separate us."  
  
She smiled. "You always know the right thing to say."  
  
"Now, stop blubbering before you ruin all your makeup."  
  
She laughed. "I love you Millie."  
  
"I love you too Reggie, now I think that Max is getting impatient, and wants you all to himself."  
  
"Let him wait, he has a whole lifetime of me to himself, I'm probably never going to see you again."  
  
"At least we will still be communicating."  
  
"Always looking on the bright side."  
  
"I looked on the dark side too long, and it nearly killed me, the bright side keeps me going."  
  
She smiled. "I guess this is goodbye."  
  
"I guess it is."   
  
We hugged again, and then she got into her car with Max, and the two of them drove away, the car rattling from cans attached to the "just married" sign. I was upset, but I hadn't really lost her, and that made me feel better. I looked up, and across the street Mason was sitting in our newly fixed car, smiling. I walked over, and he got out of the car and opened the passenger side door for me, I smiled and got in the car.  
  
"Do you want all that Georgie?" he asked me.  
  
"I thought I did, but then I realized it's just too much hassle, as long as we know we love each other, that's all that matters."  
  
He smiled. "I'm glad you feel that way. I love you Georgie."  
  
"I love you Mason."   
  
He leaned over and kissed me, and after a while sitting in the car we went home. I was glad to be home, and still found it a little quiet sometimes when I walked in. I didn't know how long it would take me to get over Daisy not living there. We went upstairs and on my bedside table there was a dozen red roses.   
  
"I thought you could use them today, after being at your sister's wedding," he whispered. "I didn't think you'd come home with flowers of your own."  
  
I grinned. "I like roses from you better then a fixed bouquet from a wedding any day," I told him pushing him onto the bed.  
  
End  
  
End notes: that was slightly shorter then I had anticipated, but I think it works for what I wanted to get across in the last part of this time frame. Next we jump another twenty years and we are introduced to Colt the lead guitarist for Purple Mist! I'm quiet excited about the new time jump, I hope everyone likes it too…. Hugz and kissez all!! Trista aka the Dustytiger! 


	17. part 17

TITLE: A Day in the Life of a Grim Reaper; Behind the Cloak and Sickle (Part16of30)  
  
AUTHOR: trista  
  
DISCLAIMER: these characters do not belong to me, they belong to MGM, Showtime, the creator of Dead Like me, and the actors who portray them, please don't sue me, not that I have any money or anything you'd want!   
  
RATING: PG-13 (for language, but the kids these days…)  
  
CONTENT: Reggie/Millie friendship, Mason/George romance  
  
SUMMARY: Mille gets and email from Reggie, Rube wakes our fave reapers up with some bad news, and we finally get our first glimps of Colt!   
  
AUTHORS NOTES: so we're ahead twenty more years, aka thirty five years ahead of the series! Aren't we all excited. The name purple mist came to me while looking at my cat misty's purple bandana… god with the devil complex is something a friend thought up in response to the wannabe name of a friend's band, and "mist purple, fuck we're stoned" is just a little joke to myself cause I know waaaay too many musicians who would actually name a band something stupid like that! I really hope u enjoy this one, and like colt… one thing for u music nuts… what do you call a drummer without a girl friend? (answer in end notes) onto the fic!  
  
I woke up to the phone ringing. Why Mason doesn't just have the phone on my side table I will never know. I swear he likes to get woken up by me rolling over him to get the phone. Although I'm not sure how a half-groggy, morning-breath me is all that attractive, but we are talking about Mason, after all. I rolled over and picked up the phone.   
  
"Morning Sunshine," he growled.  
  
"Fuck off Mason!" I snapped, before saying, "hi!?"  
  
"Good morning Peanut," I heard Rube say. "I'm on my way over there before we all go to Der Waffle Haus this morning."  
  
"Okay, do we have a choice in the matter?"  
  
"Not really?"  
  
"What if we're having pig wild monkey sex?" asked Mason.  
  
"Tell Mason to shut up, I'll be there in ten minutes."   
  
"All right see you then," I replied, and hung up the phone. "Rube tells you to shut up."  
  
"Since when does Rube make house calls?" he asked.  
  
"Damned if I know, I guess it's important."  
  
He shrugged, and I got out of bed, got dressed, brushed my teeth, and all that crap. I remember a time when morning breath didn't bother us, good god we were becoming an old married couple! I guess that sort of thing happens after thirty five years with someone. I guess the best part about being undead is that you don't age, so your stamina doesn't go down. If we were in an apartment our neighbors would think that we were newlyweds. I went back into the bedroom, and to my surprise he was dressed he went into the bathroom, and when he came out his hair was still a mess.  
  
"There's this new invention, I don't know if you Brits have it yet, it's called a brush," I joked.  
  
"You think you're funny don't you Georgie?" he asked.  
  
I smiled at him, and went over and brushed his hair with my fingers. "That'll do, the just fallen out of bed look has always suited you."  
  
He laughed, and we heard the doorbell ring, and went downstairs. I went over and unlocked the door for Rube. We should have him a key made, so he can just let himself in. On second thought, maybe not. He walked in, and just like every time he came in the morning he immediately made coffee. At least he was nice when he woke someone up from a dead sleep saying he'd be there in moments.  
  
"So do you even have pig wild whatever you said before anymore?" Rube asked, causally.  
  
I gave him a funny look and Mason proceeded to reply. "I'll be long dead in my grave before I stop having pig wild monkey sex! My bad I am dead and I'm still going!"   
  
Like the energizer fucking bunny, I thought to myself.  
  
"Correction, you're undead," Rube explained.  
  
"What's the difference?"  
  
"When you're undead you get to fraternize with other undead people, when you're dead I'd assume you can only do so with dead people."  
  
Mason took a bite of a donut that had been left in the box over night. "So, uh, what's your point Rube?" he asked.  
  
"My point is that when you're dead you won't be able to continue with your relationship with Peanut here."  
  
"Well, that's not a problem right now is it?"  
  
"Could you both sit down."  
  
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what he was going to say next. Have I ever mentioned before how I am fate's bitch, and fate likes to fuck with me. Like by dangling something in my face just long enough to lull me into a false sense of security, and then takes great pleasure in taking said thing away, in most cases someone I care for? Mason on the other hand, was not so quick at getting subtle hints.  
  
"So what's going on Rube?" Mason asked.  
  
Rube let out a rather loud sigh. "Peanut, do you understand what I'm trying to say here?"  
  
"I think so, and I hope I'm wrong," I replied.  
  
"Wait a minute! I think I got it! Don't I get some kind of warning before you drag me off to take my last soul?" Mason demanded.  
  
Rube shrugged. "A little, I guess, here's your post it for tomorrow, your last soul, but you have to collect it at a club tonight."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Must you ask so many fucking questions. I was told to that you had to collect him tonight at the Diamond."  
  
"How will I know which one he is?"  
  
"That's your job. My job is to stand outside the building on this post it tomorrow, until a wayward soul comes along."  
  
"And after tonight what about me?"  
  
"Well whatever you want until noon tomorrow, I guess, after that how the hell should I know. I'm still undead."  
  
What a lovely wake up call, finding out that the only person you ever loved you only had one more day left with. Probably less then that, because we both had work to do at some point that day. Rube handed us each post-its, and wrote down the club's name and address for Mason.  
  
"Don't bother coming over today, I guess you're going to want as much time together as you can."   
  
Rube then left the house, and left the two of sitting, dumbfounded in our kitchen. I looked at Mason and thought I was going to cry, but I figured I'd try and act happy for as long as possible. I didn't want our last day together to be filled with tears. He looked at me, and I could tell he was feeling the same way. I hugged him, then kissed him, and then just stood in his arms for a long while.  
  
"I say fuck Rube's rule, and go together today and tonight."  
  
I looked at our post-its. "By the looks of us, we're going together on the first one anyway, and there wasn't a chance in hell I was passing up an opportunity to go to a club with you one last time."  
  
He smiled. "Well, at least that's agreed upon, and I don't think Rube's going to be too pissed off."  
  
"I somehow agree."  
  
We ended up spending most of the day in bed, and not just having sex either. We talked a lot, about our fears. His fears of was going to happen to him next, and my fears of how long before I would see him again, if ever. Luckily J. and F. McDonald were not going to die till about two hours before we had to go to the club.   
  
"I don't want you to not be with another man," Mason told me.  
  
"It won't mean anything even if I am," I replied.  
  
"If it does, don't turn away from it all right Georgie?"   
  
"I'll try not to, but I just can't see myself loving anyone else the way I love you."  
  
He smiled. "We sound like a fucking romance novel."  
  
"I know, but I don't care. I guess we should get going soon, huh?"  
  
He nodded. "There's one thing I don't get. Why is it that I'm going to be replaced before Rube?"  
  
"Maybe there are different rules for people in charge?"  
  
"Maybe." I had never even thought before that the whole reaper thing happened in some sort of chronological order. I wondered if I had a longer or a shorter term as a reaper.  
  
We got up, and got dressed again, and went to where the McDonald's were going to die. We got to where we were going, which was just in front of a nice blue house, with a white picket fence. Conveniently enough "the McDonald's" was written on a porch sign. At least we knew we had gotten the right place, although no one seemed to be home. Just then a couple in their forties, strolled up the house, holding hands.  
  
"Are you the McDonlad's?" asked Mason.  
  
"No, but you can find one just down the street," the man joked.  
  
Mason smiled. "All right."  
  
"I'm sorry, it's been a family joke for a long time. I'm Jim, and this is my wife Fiona."  
  
"Mack and Millie Carpenter," Mason lied, shaking their hands, taking Fiona's soul, as I shook Jim's hand I took his.  
  
"So what can I do you for?"  
  
"We're new to the neighborhood," Mason explained, motioning in the direction of a house across the street with a for sale sign. "We'll be moving in next week, we thought we'd just take a walk around here, and see who we could meet. When we saw the sign on your porch, and saw you coming, we simply assumed."  
  
"It's nice to see some new faces around here, we'll have to get together for dinner sometime," Fiona said.  
  
I nodded. "Did you want us to bring anything?"  
  
"Gosh, no! Don't be silly. It'll be our treat to our lovely new neighbors. What did you say your names were again?"  
  
"Millie, and Mack."  
  
"How cute, I hate to chat and run, but I have some dinner cooking in the oven I must attend to."  
  
The two of them went inside, and a few minutes later there was an explosion, and we saw the two leave the house hand in hand, and go to another lit up house. Poor Fiona didn't realize that she had left the gas for the stove on during their walk and when she went to turn on the burner BOOM! She couldn't smell, I later leaned reading the newspaper, shame, but you'd think Jim would notice, makes you wonder what happens behind closed door of the all-American family, and if their lives were as perfect as they wanted the Jones' to believe.  
  
"Millie and Mack?" I asked Mason, turning to him.  
  
"I don't know, it sounded American!" he exclaimed.  
  
"You have an accent you tool!"  
  
"I'm sorry I'm not good at thinking up names on the spot."  
  
"Are you trying to tell me that you've never used an alias?"  
  
"Not while sober."  
  
I shook my head. "We better get over to that club, and find your guy."  
  
"Or girl."  
  
I nodded, and we walked over to the Diamond in search of C. Tanna. As we got there we saw a flyer for the band, the headliner was apparently called Purple Mist, and they were opening for a band called God with a Devil Complex, the names just sounded loud. We went in, and Mason paid the cover charge.  
  
"I'm looking for a C. Tanna," he told the bouncer.  
  
"You must mean Colt, he's the lead guitarist for Purple Mist," he explained. "Don't say his last name to his face."  
  
Mason nodded. "If he didn't want word getting out he shouldn't sign his emails like that."  
  
"Wannabe rockstars, can't live with 'em, can't run a successful club with out 'em!"  
  
"Isn't that the truth, thanks man!"  
  
We went in and sat down. He bought me a drink, and we sat trough the first band. Punk was certainly not my favorite style of music, and the lead singer didn't do anything but scream, in a very off-tuned way.   
  
"Purple Mist, sounds like something you'd think of while you were stoned," Mason told me, between sets.  
  
"It could be worse, they could be Mist Purple, fuck we were baked!" I laughed.  
  
He shrugged. "So which one did the guy at the front say he was?"  
  
"The lead guitarist."  
  
"All right, good."  
  
The second band went on, and I kept staring at the guy who was flailing around so much I thought he was going to hurt himself, thinking, THIS is the guy who was going to be taking Mason's place. The band wasn't so bad, quieter and more talented then the first band, anyway. I guess that's why they were the headliner. It's a shame that the band with the better name was the crappy one. After the show we walked over to Colt Tanna, who seemed to have a bunch of girls eyeing him.  
  
"Hey, man, great set!" Mason exclaimed, shaking his hand, and taking his soul.  
  
'Thanks, we've been working on some new stuff, to appeal to a larger audience, I'm glad you like it!" he exclaimed.   
  
"It's rare to see anyone but the lead singer get that into the music!"  
  
"I write more then half of it, so it's easy to get into it, especially with the crowd tonight."  
  
"Your one of the best guitarists I've ever seen, and I've seen some greats perform!"  
  
"Thank you, the name's Colt, remember it, it'll be in lights one day!"   
  
"I'm sure it will be, anyway the girlfriend isn't into this scene, but it was nice to meet you."  
  
Mason later told me that when he was a kid his father used to take him to all kinds of rock shows. He had never really gone to many after he had died, and regretted it after that night. He had forgotten how much talent can be found if you just went and looked for it. I couldn't sleep, and Mason only slept for short periods at a time, then he'd wake up, and we'd just cry, not wanting to believe that it was going to be our last night together. During one of his naps I went to the computer to see if I had gotten and email from Reggie. I logged on and sure enough there was one. I read it;  
  
Hey Millie!   
  
I still can't get over your new email addy, you always seem to be able to make me laugh. All is great here, I love London so much, I'm sure that you could convince Mason to visit home cause I really want you to see the kids! They know all about you, and think you'd be really cool to meet!   
  
Janna says hi!!!!!!!!!!!!! (she added all the exclamation points) She's learning all about how to use quotation, and she's very excited about it. She looks a lot like George when she was a kid, my mom even agrees, and she says she sometimes cries when she sees pictures of her. I can't imagine my mother crying over my kids, but whatever. She's going to be visiting in the summer, and I'm very excited, we all are.   
  
The kids get to see Max's parents all the time since they moved. Did I tell you that they moved to just outside of London yet? Well now you definatly know!! Max sends his luv btw!  
  
In other news, McKenna is entering the terrible twos, and it's absolutely crazy around here. We're all running around after her because she gets into everything. Just when we start to think that we've child-proofed beyond child-proofing, she goes and opens or finds something new. Maybe you and Mason did the right thing not having kids! haha, no you know I love my kids to death, they just make my hair turn gray way to early.  
  
I'm totally missing our late night chats, but the time change, and the kids is just getting to be such a hassle, I hate it so much. This feels so impersonal, although I wonder how mommy's kept in touch before the invention of the internet! I hate to cut this short, but McKenna is crying. Tell me what's new in your life. Miss 'ya sista!  
  
xoxo   
  
-Reggie   
  
I smiled upon reading it, and decided to tell her some sort of news about Mason after it happened, besides he was stirring, and I went into the bedroom before he could notice I was gone.   
  
End  
  
End notes: I know I'm evil, Moonie's already told me so please don't tell me again, but I said from the start that if they got together I'd have to loose Mason, and I kept him a really long time I have to get credit for that!! I also wanted you all to get to know Colt a tad before hand so that you wouldn't hate him, he's a really fun quasi-rockstar. Tell me what you think… trista aka the dustytiger  
  
Answer to the what do you a call a drummer without a girlfriend? Joke… "homeless" laugh 


	18. part 18

TITLE: A Day in the Life of a Grim Reaper; Behind the Cloak and Sickle (Part18of30) AUTHOR: trista   
  
DISCLAIMER: these characters do not belong to me, they belong to MGM, Showtime, the creator of Dead Like me, and the actors who portray them, please don't sue me, not that I have any money or anything you'd want!   
  
RATING: PG-13 (for language, but the kids these days…)   
  
CONTENT: Reggie/Millie friendship, Mason/George romance   
  
SUMMARY: Rube and George have an enlightening chat, she also has to show Colt the ropes, and gets a new roommate what a day! AUTHORS NOTES: I skipped ahead till the day after Mason left, I think it works, not exactly what I had planned but I like it. Colt is the ultimate rockstar a cross between Todd Kerns ) and Trevor Tuminski ) defiantly with Trevor's eyes, I couldn't find a good pic but you kinda get the jist on the site! I was originally aiming for a 20 part series but it looks like it's going to be more then that… I'm hoping to have a part about Anika, and Rube will probably finally get a break. I made an illusion to an ep I haven't seen something about Rube liking the messenger, I hope I didn't fuck up!   
  
I wanted to get this one out before work this evening, but 42 (my comp) had other ideas, but it think he's okay now so on with the story   
  
"I don't want to get out of bed ever again," I sobbed.   
  
"Peanut, I know you're hurting, but you have to at least try to just collect a few souls," he begged me.   
  
"Rube, I don't know if I can, especially when you tell me that you want the new guy to come and shadow me today!"   
  
"His name is Colt, and I know that you're mad that he was Mason's last soul, but you can't hold that against him."   
  
"I'm not mad at him, honestly, it's just I would rather be alone right now."   
  
"I really don't think that would be best right now."   
  
"What am I going to do kill myself? Oh, yeah, I forgot, I can't do anything rash like that because, I'm UNDEAD! I can't do anything but wallow in my misery until I'm lucky enough to reap my last soul!!" I was getting really frustrated.   
  
"It could be worse."   
  
"How so?"   
  
"You could be doomed to be a leader who has to collect more souls, but gets to take souls less often," he explained.   
  
"How do you know that you need to collect more souls?" I asked.   
  
"It's one of the things that you're told when you become a group leader."   
  
I shrugged. "Is there any reason people are chosen as group leaders."   
  
"Usually it has something to do with them needing to learn something, at least that's what I've been told. It's also usually because the powers that be think that the person deserves to live a long life, even if it's not exactly happy."   
  
"I had no idea."   
  
"I don't tell a lot of people this. I've been a reaper for longer then I'd care to admit, I've seen changes in the world that I would not have been able to even dream about when I was kid."   
  
"I know you mean well, Rube, but you cannot possibly know how I feel right now."   
  
"I don't think I'll ever know how you feel, but I think I may have some sort of idea."   
  
I glared at him. "Who have you lost?"   
  
"Here name was Celia, she was the group leader when I became a reaper. She was an amazing woman, way before her time. She took me under her wing immediately, and being a man I was very attracted her. She was a classic beauty. She must have been attracted to me as well, because about a year later. I think we reapers are always ahead of the times, because neither of us thought there was anything wrong with having a physical relationship at a time barley past prudes fainting over table legs. I thought that we would be together forever, but fate likes to fuck with all of us."   
  
I tried to smile, but it didn't work. "And here I thought I was fate's only bitch."   
  
"About ten years later I found out that she had been grooming me to replace her as team leader. She told me that she couldn't tell me where she was going, but promised me that one day we'd be together again. I don't exactly know what happened to her. Some people told me that she had received a promotion, and would be undead for at least two hundred years. They told me that she had done something really bad, and was being punished. Some people said that she had simply collected her last soul and moved on."   
  
"What do believe Rube?"   
  
"To be perfectly honest I don't believe she moved on. I'm not sure if I believe the two hundred years thing, but I'm almost certain that she didn't move on. For one thing no one ever replaced her. The group didn't need the extra reaper, so I suppose that maybe whoever was her replacement was sent elsewhere, but I've never heard of that happening. I find it more believable that she got a promotion, and I don't think it was one she wanted."   
  
"Why do you say that?"   
  
"If she was moving on she would have been able to tell me. If she got a promotion I could have tracked her down by now. I think that somehow she was taken from my life as punishment to both of us."   
  
"How so?"   
  
"You know about the reapers not having babies rule, of course, but back then it was pretty hard to prevent Now there are all kinds of methods of birth control, but then there was not. At that time because of it reapers were really not supposed to date. Sure, some did, but everyone said that it was a huge risk. We were careful, but counting days is not remotely fool proof."   
  
"Are you saying-"   
  
"Yeah, I think she got pregnant and was taken away because of that. I don't know what happened to her, and by now it's all together possible that she has done her final transition, and whenever mine comes I will see her again. It's also possible that she is being stuck right under my nose, and I can't even see her, and I never will again."   
  
"Oh."   
  
"I tried straight out asking, once right after she disappeared, but it wasn't a good idea. Trying to ask again is out of the question because it's like begging for an ass kicking you know you're going to regret. I still think about her a lot, and I miss her, and I think that that is my punishment for my role in the whole ordeal. I have had to deal with the pain of it all for so long I've forgotten how to feel, and I wonder if I ever even loved her." A tear rolled down his cheek. "So I can understand how losing Mason is affecting you, but unfortunately the higher ups don't give two shits about our feelings, all they care about is that the souls get collected, and everything runs smoothly. I'd take Colt myself, but I don't have another soul for another week."   
  
I nodded. "I understand what you're saying, but it hurts so much."   
  
"Just think, one day you will be reunited."   
  
"How are you so sure?"   
  
"After all this time, and all this agony I have to whole heartedly believe that there is something better lying ahead for us."   
  
I nodded. "I guess you're right." I got out of bed. "Rube, thank you, honestly, you've helped me a lot, but could you please leave, I need to get dressed."   
  
He smiled, and hugged be before he left. "If you need to talk, I'm there for you Peanut."   
  
I got out of bed and got dressed. Mason had left the house before I woke up, and when I went into the bathroom there was a not, and a rose on the counter.   
  
Georgie, you are my world, and I don't know what I'm going to do without you, I wish you could be there with me for the next step, but when you make yours know that I'll be there waiting for you. Love always Mason.   
  
I put the note in my pocket, and I admit that after that day that note always stayed with me. Whenever I was upset or thought that the world was crashing down, I would take out that note, and remember that there was someone who loved me, waiting for me, and that somehow we would be together again. I went out the door, and Colt was sitting on my lawn.  
  
"Uh, hi," he said. "You must be George."   
  
I nodded. "Yeah, and you're my shadow today."   
  
"Do you hate me?"   
  
I looked him right in the eyes, and discovered that he had the most amazing eyes I had ever seen. They were blue, cat eyes, he also had hair that hung down around his neck, dark, and he was tall. For some reason I couldn't bring myself to hate the guy, if my heart hadn't already been taken I could have even fallen for the guy. I'm started to see why girls liked rockstar boys.   
  
"I don't hate you, I'm just going through a rough time right now."   
  
He nodded. "So how did you die?"   
  
"I was hit with a toilet seat from the space shuttle."   
  
"That's why that little prep said something along the lines of toilet seat girl meets toothbrush boy."   
  
"Colvin? He's an ass. Toothbrush boy?"   
  
"Yeah, the old guitarist from Purple Mist was a little jealous, although he was the one that quit, I can't help that we started getting places. Anyway, I've been living at the rehearsal space, and all of a sudden when I'm brushing my teeth yesterday morning, and he came in, and saw me. I guess he got really pissed, and he proceeded, to shove the toothbrush down my throat. I don't know how but the little bastard actually managed to kill me with my own tooth brush. And here I am, a grim reaper!"   
  
"Wow, that's almost worse then getting hit in the head by a toilet seat hurtling from space!"   
  
He laughed. "I would have to agree that the toilet seat thing is worse, but the toothbrush thing is way more baffling. I mean honesty, how the fuck do you actually kill a guy with a fucking toothbrush!?"   
  
"Trust me you see some pretty fucked up things in this line of work."   
  
"I'd imagine. So how long have you been doing this for?"   
  
"About thirty five years."   
  
He looked at me, kind of baffled. "But you don't look a day over twenty."   
  
"Reaper metabolism, you heal quickly, and you don't age."   
  
"You mean I'm going to look like this forever?" I nodded. "Damn! I picked a good time to die!"   
  
I smiled. "We have places to get to."   
  
"I saw you smile, I'll make you laugh yet!"   
  
"One day I'll laugh, just not today, I'm kind of down, and I don't want to work today!"   
  
"What's a beautiful girl like you doing sad?"   
  
"The guy I've been dating thirty five years was replaced by you yesterday."   
  
"Harsh. Though I wouldn't know what it feels like to be in love. It's all part of the rockstar life style."   
  
"But you're not a rockstar."   
  
"I was going to be if that little prick hadn't shoved my fucking toothbrush down my throat."   
  
"Everyone thinks that they're going to be famous, and very few people make it."   
  
"You were there at my last show, I had everything it took to be a rockstar."   
  
"Unfortunately, things change."   
  
"Can't I still be a rockstar?"   
  
"I somehow think it's against the reaper rules."   
  
"I hate rules! They're meant to be broken."   
  
"Trust me on this one, you don't want to be breaking rules and pissing off Rube."   
  
"So how do we get paid for this gig?"   
  
"You, uh, don't, you take what you can from the dead."   
  
"I'm no thief!"   
  
"It's a victimless crime, they don't need the money, you do. Who's to know?"   
  
He shrugged. "And if I don't want to do that?"   
  
"You get a day job, but trust me that sucks a lot, you have to lie to get time off, and it's quiet the annoying hassle, but it took me a while to be okay with taking from the dead."   
  
He nodded. "I see, so where are we going anyway?"   
  
"A mall, where D. Burn is going to die today."   
  
"How will you know which he is?"   
  
"Watch and you'll see."   
  
We got to the mall, and apparently D. Burn was going to die somewhere in the food court. I looked around, and there weren't all that many people there, except for the food court employees.   
  
"What we want to do is be like a fly on the wall, and look for risk factors," I explained.   
  
"We're in a mall food court that has ten different fryers, and eight hot irons, I somehow think the whole place is one big risk factor. Not to mention the possibility of food poisoning."   
  
"Not our department, we don't deal with health shit, we deal with accidents, murders, suicides excreta," I explained. "Didn't Rube tell you this already?"   
  
"Probably, but I wasn't paying attention."   
  
I rolled my eyes. "You're right about the risk factors you know, there are way too many here. I say we look around at nametags, and see if we get lucky."   
  
"Nametags, what are we looking for?"   
  
"People who's names start with the letter "D.""   
  
"Right."   
  
He followed me around the food court, while I looked for nametags of people who's names started with "D" we were in luck, and there were only two, one was "Donna" and the other was "Douglas." Donna worked at a salad place, and there didn't seem to be anything behind her counter that could hurt her. To be honest the salads looked like they came pre-made and there was nothing that could hurt here, accept maybe a paper cut. Douglas on the other hand worked at one of those quick pizza and pasta places, and I could see a pizza oven in the back. I went over to him.  
  
"You're Dougie Burn aren't you?" I asked the still pimply faced twenty five year old.   
  
"I sure am!" he exclaimed proudly, with a southern accent.   
  
"Well I'll be! Dougie Burn I never woulda thought I'd see you out here!" I exclaimed with a fake southern accent. "It's so nice to not have to hide this darn accent thing!"   
  
He grinned. "Who might you be little lady?"   
  
"I bet you don't remember me do 'ya? I'm little Millie Jones, from school!"   
  
"Millie Jones?"   
  
"You probably don't much remember me, I ain't bothered none! I was the little thing at the front of the class with them silly pig tails, and glasses. My mama used to make me were these silly Catholic school girl things to school!"   
  
"Why, Millie Jones, I do remember you! You was so quiet back then! You sure have changed some since then."   
  
"Yeah, everyone tells me that! You wouldn't happen to be able to wressle me up a little something to eat would 'ya seeing as I don't get paid until tommora!"   
  
"I can't see why not, I am the assistant manager here!"   
  
"Well, I'll be, I never woulda thought you would do that, I'll just have to tell my mama and papa about this! They'll probably come visit you right soon!"   
  
He passed a few pieces of cheese pizza over the counter, and as he did I took his soul. "Now don't you go be telling everyone that I gave you free food cause I'll get in trouble."   
  
"I promise I won't, thank you so much Dougie, I'll be seeing you 'round I'm sure!"   
  
I walked away, and sat down with Colt.   
  
"And that is what we call blending in," I told him. "Do want this?"   
  
"I'll eat anything right about now! Thanks!"   
  
I looked over at the pizza place, poor Dougie was so dumbfounded by the way little Millie Jones had grown up he didn't notice the broom had fallen on the floor, and he fell into the open pizza oven. I made sure I shielded Colt's view until he had finished wolfing down the pizza.   
  
"What happened to him?" he asked.   
  
"Fell in the oven, and it looks like, and it looks like someone's already called the police. We better split, I saw him move on," I replied.   
  
"Why are we leaving."   
  
"Well I was the last person who saw him alive, and I really don't want to talk to the police with a crappy accent, they'll catch on, and we don't want that."   
  
He nodded, and we left the mall. "So where am I supposed to crash anyway?"   
  
"Most of us just squat at various places."   
  
"I don't think I could do that."   
  
"Didn't you say you lived in your rehearsal space?"   
  
He shrugged. "Well yeah, but that's different then squatting at some dead guy's place."   
  
"Look, I have a room downstairs at my place, I don't think I could manage without a roommate. The place is paid for, but I you need to get your own food, and help pay the utilities. I'll give you a month to figure out your money situation, but after that I don't care if you starve or live on the streets, I need a roommate that's not a leach."   
  
He nodded. "You've got yourself a deal." He held out his hand, and shook mine.   
  
So Colt followed me home, and I showed him to his room, which had been Daisy's. We hadn't used it in a while, but I did vacuum the bed pretty often, and there were a shitload of sheets, that he could use. I got them for him, and he made the bed himself. He then went upstairs, and sat across from me at the table.   
  
"So what do I need to know?"   
  
"Upstairs, is our- I mean my place, don't come in when the door's closed, I'll follow the same rule. Your bathroom's downstairs, it's also the guest one, so keep it clean. Rube comes over in the morning sometimes, so if you hear the door try and answer it."   
  
"So who's room was it before mine?"   
  
"Her name was Daisy Adire, you two wouldn't have gotten along she was an aspiring film star when she died. She was a good roommate, I sill miss her."   
  
"There are a lot of things I'm going to have to learn doing this."   
  
I nodded. "Yeah, and if you ever want to know if you can get around something, ask me I tried it all when I started. Trust me it is not a good thing to get Rube pissed off."   
  
"What about Anika?"   
  
"What about her?"   
  
"Should I watch out for her.'   
  
I shrugged. "She's been a reaper for twenty years, we've never had any problems with each other."   
  
"She just seems really authoritative."   
  
"I wouldn't class her as that, she was quiet the punk when she first started."   
  
"Really, I have trouble picturing that."   
  
"Whatever, look, I'm kind of sick of talking right now, I feel like wallowing."   
  
I went to my room, and I knew that I should email Reggie, and tell her something about what had happened with Mason, but I just couldn't think of a lie. I had hardly slept since I found out that Mason would be leaving, and that was two days ago. I laid down in my big empty bed, and cried myself to sleep.   
  
End   
  
End notes: see as much as you wanna you just can't hate Colt hehe… he's like my dream guy haha… only a drummer… mmm drummers… any-way! Up next, or soon George is going to get Anika's niece's post it, how will she take it, will George and Anika bond a little bit more? And what about that little prep Colvin? WHAT ABOUT GEORGE AND MASON!?!?!?!?!?!?!! All will be revealed in due time kiddies, stay tuned… hugz and kissez trista aka the dustytiger 


	19. part 19

TITLE: A Day in the Life of a Grim Reaper; Behind the Cloak and Sickle (Part19of30)   
  
AUTHOR: trista   
  
DISCLAIMER: these characters do not belong to me, they belong to MGM, Showtime, the creator of Dead Like me, and the actors who portray them, please don't sue me, not that I have any money or anything you'd want!   
  
RATING: PG-13 (for language, but the kids these days…)   
  
CONTENT: Reggie/Millie friendship, Mason/George romance   
  
SUMMARY: Anika goes with George when she gets her niece's post-it, and Anika and Rube seem to acting odd.   
  
AUTHORS NOTES: I skipped ahead a few weeks. Sorry for the delay but my comp was getting fixed for the last little bit. I hope you all like this one!! I don't have much to say today. Sorry it's a little on the short side.  
  
I was sitting next to Anika at Der Waffle Haus. Rube had already handed out our post-its, and Colt no longer needed a babysitter. Rube left first, followed by Colt and Colvin. I went to get up but Anika took my wrist. "What's up Anika?" I asked, concerned."Can I see your post-it?" she asked, I nodded and I showed her the post-it that said B-L Kane. "I thought so, can I go with you?" "Uh, yeah, sure, but why?" "Do remember me telling you about my niece?"  
  
"Vaguely, she was your neighbor's daughter that you more or less raised?"  
  
"Yeah, that's the one, and you have her post-it."  
  
"I'm not sure if Rube is going to like this."  
  
"I'm not going to interfere, I just know that she won't move on without knowing that I'm all right."  
  
"Fine, fine."  
  
"If Rube get pissed I'll take the wrath."  
  
I nodded, all right. I knew that Anika would not do anything she shouldn't, but I was still worried about how Rube would react, but of course it would be better to have her there to help her niece, then to have a soul following me around until I could track her down."So what's her name?"  
  
"Brooke-Lyn, two words, I really like the way her mom spelled it. Probably the only thing I liked about her."  
  
"What happened to her?"  
  
"She died before I did, she overdosed when Brooke-Lyn was fourteen, so I took her in, and we lived together till I died. Poor kid didn't have anyone after that."  
  
"Did you ever snoop around to see how she did?"  
  
"Yeah, one of her friends ended up helping the through, and they got married and had a little boy."  
  
"Good for her."  
  
"I feel kind of bad that her son won't have a mother."  
  
"Does he have a good father?"  
  
"One of the best."  
  
"Then you really shouldn't have anything to worry about."  
  
We got to where Brooke-Lyn was going to die. As she walked by us Anika nodded, and I took her soul. She continued walking toward a group of guys that were hanging around her front door. They looked really pissed off. As soon as she went to go to her apartment they started to hassle her.  
  
"You think you're better then us Brooke-Lyn?" asked one of the guys. "Now that you're married and have a kid, you think you can ignore us?"  
  
"I told you that I'm trying to change my life, and if you want to keep doing what it is you do I'll turn the other cheek," she explained.  
  
"I don't trust you."  
  
"If I haven't ratted you out by now, why would I do it later?"  
  
"I don't know Brooke-Lyn, you tell me."  
  
"You're a motherfucker, just go home, leave me alone, and anything I've given you my word on before I have kept."  
  
"I just can't do that Brook-Lyn. I hate to have to do this to someone with a kid, but you've left me no choice."  
  
The guy pulled out a gun and proceeded to shoot her four times, before running away. It was pretty daring of them to shoot her right on the doorstep in daylight, and they didn't even notice us watching the scene unfold, so anyone could have been watching. Pretty stupid move for a group of people trying to hide something. They hadn't really needed Brook-Lyn to say anything, they seemed to be the type of thugs who dug their own graves. I looked over at Anika and she had tears in her eyes.   
  
I then looked up to where Brooke-Lyn was sprawled out on her doorstep. She slowly stood up, realizing that something was amiss.   
  
"What the fuck?" she mumbled to herself.  
  
"You're dead." I told her, which made me think of Mason, because of the amount of times he said it. I was surprised that it didn't come out with an English accent.   
  
"Who are you?" she asked. "I'm a grim reaper."  
  
"Auntie??" she asked looking at Anika.  
  
"Yeah, Brookie, it's me."  
  
"What are you doing here?"  
  
"I'm just here to tell you that I love you, I always have and I always will, and I'll join you wherever you end up when I go too."  
  
"Why can't you go with me now?" she asked, her voice cracking.  
  
"Because, I've got some work to do still. I would rather be with you, but I don't have any control over it."  
  
"But I want you to go with me!" She was beginning to get agitated.  
  
"Look Brookie, would like nothing more then to go with you, but I have stuff here that I simply cannot leave behind."  
  
"Since when did you follow the rules Auntie?"  
  
I almost wanted to tell Anika about piggy-backing, and what I thought I knew about it, but decided that Rube would probably be beyond pissed if I told her. I felt like I shouldn't be there listening to what they had to say to each other, but no one told me to leave, so I didn't.  
  
"Look, I've changed, and maybe that's why I'm a grim reaper, because there is something that I need to learn before I get to move on and be with the people, or I should say person that I love."  
  
I was kind of surprised that she had told her niece that, because I thought I was the only person who thought that you had to learn something in order to move on, but Rube said that the number of souls was predetermined. Maybe Anika knew something that I didn't.  
  
The two of them continued to talk for a little while, and I decided to just not listen to what they were saying. Later Anika told me that they had talked about why they couldn't move on together which made me think that she did know about piggybacking but for whatever reason didn't want to do it. If my theory about wanting to have your own afterlife was true, I would imagine that Brooke-Lyn and Anika's were pretty close, but I didn't really question her about it, and we didn't talk about that day much. After about twenty minutes of them speaking Brooke-Lyn moved on. We then went to a coffee shop, and had a coffee together.  
  
"That's the hardest thing I've ever had to do," Anika told me.  
  
"I wouldn't know what to do if I had to help anyone in my family to move on. I had a hard enough time dealing with reaper friends moving on, let alone actually having to do something to help them to go along smoothly," I explained.  
  
"I always wonder if what lies after the lights is the same as what they see. Maybe someone just tricks them into a false sense of security, and there is nothing after they die."  
  
"If we have an afterlife, and from what I can tell reapers are screw ups in life, then I'd imagine that everyone else just gets to skip to the good part of being dead. A real afterlife, away from the ails of the world."  
  
"I hope so."  
  
"I think that after all the time I've been doing this that I can't not believe that those people are not going to where they think they are. I mean why would everything be so different if it was just a trick. Someone I used to work with one time told me that everyone is classified into little sections, and there aren't that many of them. And in life it completely believe it, but when it comes to death there are so many variations."  
  
"What do you mean."  
  
"In life there are just a bunch of ways to classify people, and no matter how you do it, you end up with lots of people in big groups. When people die, and they see whatever lies ahead, it's almost always something different. Even most Christians see something different when they see paradise."  
  
She shrugged. "I never looked at it like that, but it's true."  
  
"We did some paper work with last thoughts one time, and last thoughts tend to fall into so few categories, but when you look at the names of the people that you remember although a hundred of them thought the same thing, none of them saw the same thing when they saw their lights show."  
  
"You've actually done that sort of research?"  
  
"I get bored when I'm not at work or in school, so I find ways to busy myself. I could probably write a reaper handbook if I wanted to."  
  
Anika laughed. "It was so hard not to piggyback with Brooke-Lyn."  
  
"Why didn't you?"  
  
"I have my reasons."   
  
She refused to expand on that. It bugged me that she didn't want to tell me why she wouldn't piggyback, but I didn't want to press the issue too much. We finished our coffee, and then went on our separate ways. When I got to the house Rube was sitting at my kitchen table. I was rather surprised to see him, although more baffled as to how he got into my house.  
  
"Hey, Peanut, you really should hide your key in a less cliché place," he informed me.  
  
"I'll have to remember that." He nodded. "So why did you break into my house, exactly?"  
  
"I wanted to talk to you, I thought you'd be back from your appointment by now."  
  
I shrugged. "Took a little bit longer then I thought."  
  
"Did Anika go with you?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"Did she come back?"  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?"  
  
"I know that you had the post it for someone who meant a lot to her, and I was wondering if she piggybacked."  
  
I shook my head. "No, she won't tell me why she didn't, but she didn't."  
  
Rube nodded. "Well then, that's all I needed to hear, I really didn't think she had it in her to not go with BL, but that works out better then."  
  
He then stood up, and left the house, leaving my dumbfounded. Why the hell would Rube break into my house to ask me if Anika had piggybacked. If he really needed to know he could have asked us to meet him back at Der Waffle Haus when we were done. He obviously guessed that Anika would go with me for that particular appointment. I sighed, and sat down on the couch. I really didn't want to think about it. The one good thing was that he wasn't mad that she went along. At least I knew now if someone I knew from life happened to fall into our groups hands I could at least say goodbye to them.  
  
A few minute after Rube left Colt came in carrying a kitten. I looked at him quizzically. "It belonged to the last guy I reaped," he explained.   
  
I nodded. "Does it have a name?" I asked.  
  
"Dog, though if we're going to keep it I'd like to name it something else."  
  
"I think I agree but it would be nice to have a pet around."  
  
"So have any idea for a name for this little one?"  
  
I looked at the cat and it was orange and white. "How about Colby?"  
  
"Like the cheese?"  
  
"Yeah, he's almost the same colours."  
  
"It's a she, but I agree and that's a pretty cute name. What do you think Colby?" The cat meowed.  
  
I went upstairs to my room, and just laid on the bed. I didn't have much ambition to do anything anymore. But the cat came upstairs and sat on my chest, and purred, which made me feel a little bit better.  
  
End  
  
End notes: up next we'll find out what Rube and Anika are keeping secret, er kinda, hopefully it'll be longer, and there shouldn't be too much of a delay. 


	20. part 20

TITLE: A Day in the Life of a Grim Reaper; Behind the Cloak and Sickle (Part20of30)   
  
AUTHOR: trista   
  
DISCLAIMER: George and the concept is not mine, it belongs to MGM, showcase, Ellen Muth, and the creator of the series, the new characters are mine, but I don't think anyone will be borrowing them.  
  
RATING: PG-13 (for language, but the kids these days…)   
  
CONTENT: Reggie/Millie friendship, Mason/George romance   
  
SUMMARY: George finally tells Reggie that something happened with Mason, another reaper joins the ranks, who will be replacing Rube???  
  
AUTHORS NOTES: All right, this one worked out a little better then the last one. I'm thinking about doing two more in this time, and then jumping ahead for the last jump which will bring us about 80 years ahead of the show! In that time frame all linger questions will be answered!!! I'm getting very excited about seeing the light at the end of this tunnel, because I was originally hoping for this series to be 20 parts, and obviously since I still have at least four parts left I seem to have gone over hehe. I'm really glad that people liking them, and I hope have a new part out soon, but you never know what might pop-up.  
  
Since I got the cat I started to sleep a little better. Sure the cat was not the size of person, but she did make me feel like I wasn't alone in my bed anymore. Colby noticed that I had started move around, and she moved from where she slept, on my feet, going next to my hand purring. I smiled, and began to pet the cat, and she started to purr louder. A moment later the phone rang, I picked it up.  
  
"Hello," I said, still groggy.  
  
"Good morning Peanut, the meeting's at your place today, okay?" asked Rube on the other end.   
  
I didn't have the chance to respond before he hung up the phone. I growled, and put some clothes on before I went downstairs. First I went into the kitchen to put some coffee on. Then I went to the basement to wake Colt, to warn him that everyone was going to be coming over. He got out of bed, and went to go right upstairs with only his boxers on.  
  
"Aren't you getting dressed?" I asked him.  
  
"Yeah, when I leave the house," he explained.  
  
"Colt, there are people coming over, you can't very well hang out in the kitchen in your ratty boxers."  
  
"There not ratty, they're my rockstar boxers."  
  
I looked at them, and wondered why anyone would think that a pair of plaid boxers were rockstar boxers, but there are some questions that are better left unanswered. I rolled my eyes. "Whatever boxers they are, just put a pair of pants over them at least."  
  
"Fine."  
  
I left the room upon hearing the doorbell ring. I went upstairs, and was not surprised to see that Anika was the first person to show up. She sat down at the kitchen table, and looked as if she might know what was going on, the girl sure was good at keeping secrets. I went into the kitchen and poured two cups of coffee, and gave her one.  
  
"Thanks," she said. "I need this."  
  
I smiled. "How are you holding up with the whole Brooke-Lyn thing?"  
  
"Better then can be expected, and I'd probably be pretty fine if I didn't have other things on my mind too."  
  
"Do you want to talk about it?"  
  
"Maybe, but not right today, all right."  
  
"Whatever."  
  
She nodded, and we sat and drank our coffee in silence, Colt came up the stairs, and took a cup of coffee as well, but put some alcohol in it, as he always did in the morning. He sat down with us.  
  
"So what's on the minds of the two most beautiful women I know?" he asked.  
  
We both rolled our eyes, and the three of us sat in silence until Colvin showed up. We didn't talk much when she showed up, just said the routine hi how are you thing, and the returned to sitting in silence. I wonder how it made him feel to realize that no one in his group liked him. Rube showed up last, and a half an hour later the Colvin had. I was rather surprised because Rube tended to always be one of the first, and quiet punctual.  
  
After walking in he went right over to make coffee, and then sat down with the rest of us. "Don't you all look happy," he grumbled.  
  
"You look like a sad sack yourself, there," Colvin commented.  
  
"I have good reason, you probably don't."  
  
Colt shrugged. "Probably not, so are we going to be hearing this good reason or are we just going to sit here all day, and let death take a vacation."  
  
"I'll get to why we've all met here today when I feel like it."   
  
Rube proceeded to hand out our post-its, strangely not giving one to Anika. I decided not to ask about why she didn't have one, because Rube was in a bad mood, even for Rube. We sat, again in silence a few moments. Rube looked as if he was looking for the right words to say something.  
  
When he finally spoke, he started with. "I know that all of you know already what happens when someone takes their last soul. But I'm guessing that none of you know what happens when a group leader takes his last soul."  
  
"You're taking your last soul?" asked Colvin. "Can I be the new group leader?"  
  
"Yes, I'm taking my last soul, no you can't volunteer for my job. At any given time two people in the group are able to take over the position. There are factors which determine which one is the first choice, and which one is the second choice. One the old group leader is replaced, two new people from the group are chosen as the next leader, the second person cannot know that they had been chosen, but the first person knows before everyone else who the picks for new leader are."  
  
"This sounds confusing," Colvin mumbled.  
  
"Will you shut up! Anyway I'm taking my last soul tomorrow, so I need to tell all of you who will be the group leader from now on." He paused, just long enough to piss us all off. "The powers that be have decided that Anika will be the new group leader. I'm sure you're glad to have that secret off your mind, Anika."  
  
"Anika this sucks! Everywhere I've been a group leader is always needed, and I never get to be them!" Colvin complained.  
  
"I'm surprised that people would even want to keep you on a team," Colt grumbled.  
  
I laughed, and Colvin looked pretty pissed off. I was half expecting him to stand up and childishly start a fight. Though he probably knew it wasn't a good idea because he'd loose. We all became silent again, none of us knowing what to say, with the post-its handed up Colt proceeded to his room to get dressed. Anika and Colvin left, leaving Rube and me alone at the table.  
  
"So are you glad to be leaving?" I asked Rube.  
  
"In a way I am, because I'm glad that I'm finally going to be able to move on, but in a way I'm upset too," he explained.  
  
"Why's that?"  
  
"I always thought that I'd be around long enough to see you move on, it would have been like the perfect close to this part of my afterlife."  
  
I gave him a quizzical look. "Why would I do that?"  
  
"Because you were so troublesome when you started, and now you're one of the best reapers on the team."  
  
"I doubt that, Colt is still new he'll need some time, but I'm sure that he'll make a good reaper."  
  
Rube smiled. "I'm going to miss you Peanut."  
  
I nodded. "I'm going to miss you too."  
  
"And here I thought you hated me."  
  
I laughed. "At first I did, but you started to grow on me, besides you are the only person left that was here when I started."  
  
He shrugged. "I guess, so but, not having someone that knows all your rookie secrets might turn out better then you think."  
  
I nodded. "It's going to be strange around here without you."  
  
"You'll get used to it, just like you did when everyone else left."  
  
"Well, kind of."  
  
He shook his head. "You took the whole Daisy and Mason thing a lot better then I would have. You took the Mason thing a lot better then I took with the girl I loved."  
  
"What would freaking out, and not doing anything at all accomplish, I thought about doing that, but that wouldn't bring them back. I miss Mason a lot, and it still hurts a lot, but I have to go on with my life. He would have wanted it that way." "It just took me a lot longer to understand that."  
  
"Everyone deals with things there own way, you should know that."  
  
He nodded. "It's funny everyone that I've seen move on has made this amazing transformation, and then there's me I'm still the same person I was."  
  
"You're different know then from when I met you!"  
  
"How do you figure?"  
  
"Because now you seem to be accepting that there are something that the powers that be do that you simply have no control over."  
  
"I've always known that."  
  
"Yeah, but now you accept that no matter how much you want to you can't change what they decided, and to just go with it."  
  
He nodded. "I never thought about it that way."  
  
"And what was Mason's great transformation?"  
  
"Like you don't know!"  
  
"I have no clue, honestly." I must be really stupid, Mason didn't seem like he much changed.  
  
"Mason was completely clean, no alcohol even, when he moved on. That was thanks to you, Peanut. He would not have been the same person you not been in his life."  
  
"I somehow doubt that."  
  
"It was you that he changed for, he wanted you to love someone who wasn't a screw up. He told me so a few days before he left."  
  
I had started to cry. "Why did you tell me this?"  
  
"Because you needed to know. You, Peanut were the best thing that ever happened to you, before you two started seeing each other he was going to be the next group leader. Then you came along, and helped him to reduce his sentence if you will. He would have been a reaper a much longer time had you not come around."  
  
I shrugged. "And what about me?"  
  
"You're still new at this game."  
  
I shrugged. "I guess so."  
  
"I've been doing this longer then anyone's been alive."  
  
"You're right, I shouldn't be complaining, it could be a lot worse, I could have been the group leader."  
  
"That's what I'm saying. As much as I'd like to stay here and chat with you, Peanut, your appointment is coming up, and you have to get all the way across town in rush hour traffic."  
  
I rolled my eyes, and we both went out the door together. I could hardly believe that it was the last day Rube would be handing me a post it. I wondered who the next person to have been a group leader would have been. I got into the car, and drove to where I had to be. I wondered when and where Rube's last appointment would be. I was not so much worried about who was going to be joining the group, as I knew that Anika would make a really good leader.  
  
When I got to where L. Cavanaugh was going to die, I could not figure out how anyone was going to die. The place was quiet, and peaceful, and there was no one there. I could only assume it was quiet park, but I wondered if it was really public. There were people doing yoga, and simply soaking up the sun. If I were wasn't in the accident section, I'd just assume that someone would have a heart attack. Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone that didn't look like they quiet belonged. I strolled past them, taking their soul as I did.   
  
I sat down, at least I knew I wouldn't look like an idiot I had seen another person just sitting staring into nothingness. Of course I was looking at something, I was looking at how L. Cavanaugh was going to die. Just then all of a sudden he just fell to the ground. I was very confused, but the soul moved on immediately. I read later in the morning paper that Luke Cavanaugh had taken a slow acting poison in order to kill himself, and that was why I had ended up with his post it.  
  
I went home, and emailed Reggie, writing;  
  
Hey you,   
  
Sorry about not writing in a while, but something came up. I'm pretty sure you can guess that the something has to do with Mason because he's the only thing in my life right now. He seems to have fallen off the face of the planet, and I fear the worst. I really don't think that he left me, so I have to assume that he was kidnapped, and will never be able to come to me again. I could really use a shoulder to cry on via email whenever, so I'll be keeping in better contact.   
  
xOxO Millie  
  
I hadn't exactly lied, he didn't really die, because he was undead, but he wasn't alive either. I hoped that she would not ask too many questions, because I'm not sure how long I could keep up a good lie for. Just after I hit send, and was about to curl up and read a book the phone rang.  
  
"Hello?" I said, only Rube would ever call, and we had made our peace with each other.  
  
"Hi, George, would you mind if Rube's replacement crashed on your couch?" asked Anika.  
  
"I could deal with that for a little while, but he better not make himself comfortable."  
  
"I know, I know, I'll be over in a few."  
  
I hung up the phone, and not fifteen minutes later Anika was walking in with a tall blonde haired man in this forties. "This is Drew," Anika told me.  
  
"Hi Drew, Anika says you'll be staying here a few days."  
  
"Sure, I am, I know that I'm going to wake up any minute now. There is no way that I died like that!"  
  
"Like what?" I almost afraid to ask.  
  
"I tripped over a dog bone, and somehow I died."  
  
"I got hit in the head from a hurtling, flaming toilet seat from the space shuttle, you'll learn soon that anything can kill a person."  
  
He shrugged. "Way to be an optimist."  
  
"Just be lucky I'm letting you crash on my couch, when I first started I had to get my own place, no one was nice enough to let me squat with them."  
  
"You squat here?"   
  
I sighed, loudly. "I own here, a few of my old co-workers used to squat wherever they could." He nodded. "Look, I've had a long day, and would really rather be alone. The bathroom is over then, upstairs and downstairs are off limits, and if you finish anything put on the list on the fridge."  
  
"All right."  
  
I went back to my room. I didn't hate Drew, I just wasn't feeling like I wanted to meet anyone knew. I heard Anika explaining to him that I had just lost two people who had meant a lot to me, and not to get too offended if I acted kind of strange. I sat in my room for a while reading, before I decided to see if Reggie had emailed me back. She had, and it read;Millie,  
  
That's terrible to here, you know that if I was there I would have been one of the heads of the search party. If you need anything at all, you tell me, and feel free to call me collect if you ever think you're going to do something crazy, and need to hear a familiar voice on the other end of the line. How long has he been gone for.  
  
I lied and told her that it had been about a month, I hadn't emailed her in longer then that so she wouldn't get suspicious. I was glad to have someone around that I had known since I had become a reaper, even if she didn't know the truth. I was glad to have Reggie as a friend, and I don't think I would trade being a reaper for going back to being just her sister. I actually thought that it was better for me to be her friend then her sister. Although at times I found it hard not tell her the truth when she was talking about "me."  
  
That night with Colby laying on my feet purring, I realized for the first time that Rube would not be there at Der Waffle Haus in the morning. It was going to be odd having Anika taking the lead, and being in control of everything. I also realized that for a little while I would probably have to help Drew get used his new position as a reaper, which would not be fun. Whoever thought that the person who tried the hardest to not be a reaper, would be the first one to tell the new ones all the rules? I fell asleep thinking of all the people that I had worked with as a reaper, and my last thoughts were wondering what had ever happened to Roxy.  
  
End  
  
End notes: So here is the next part, eventually we may learn who was the second choice as the reaper. I haven't really decided what Drew is going to be like so there will be character development of him in the next one. I think he'll be a part time daddy of one, not sure of anything else. I've had a shitty day so nice words would make me feel better. Hugz and kissez trista aka the dustytiger 


	21. part 21

TITLE: A Day in the Life of a Grim Reaper; Behind the Cloak and Sickle (Part21of30)   
  
AUTHOR: trista   
  
DISCLAIMER: George and the concept is not mine, it belongs to MGM, showcase, Ellen Muth, and the creator of the series, the new characters are mine, but I don't think anyone will be borrowing them.  
  
RATING: PG-13 (for language, but the kids these days…)   
  
CONTENT: Reggie/Millie friendship, Mason/George romance   
  
SUMMARY: We learn more about Drew, and see the George is really starting to have issues with this reaper thing.  
  
AUTHORS NOTES: The song featured in this one is called "my song" by a great artist called j. Englishman, I was writing and when I wrote it the line "I just turned 27 but I'm feeling so much older" popped into my head and I had to incorporate the song. This was not what I was expecting for this one but tell me if it works kay my lovelies?   
  
Anika had already asked me if it was all right if we all met at the house for her to give out our assignments. I didn't have a problem with it, as long as she didn't make it a regular thing. But with Drew squatting in my living room it made things a little easier. I was really being to like waking up to a purring cat on my feet, and was very glad that Colt had brought Colby home. Since Mason left I was getting up earlier and earlier every morning. I went downstairs and I was surprised to be greet by the smell of coffee. When I got to the kitchen Drew was sitting at the table, sipping his coffee. I poured myself a cup and sat down with him.  
  
"You can't sleep either?" he inquired.  
  
"Not since my boyfriend left," I told him.  
  
"Where did he go?"  
  
"He moved on, I guess, he popped his last soul and that was the end of that."  
  
He nodded. "So much I have to learn."  
  
I shrugged. "Yeah, it's really overwhelming at first. I mean you die, and then before you even have a chance to get used to that, bam! They tell you you're undead, and a grim reaper to boot."  
  
"Yeah, what's with that anyway."  
  
"It's just the way it works."  
  
"Well it's pretty shitty if you ask me, and Anika says I can't have contact with my family."  
  
I nodded. "Yeah, that's true, though there are ways around that, if you know what you're doing."  
  
"Really?"  
  
I smiled. "I still talk to my sister all the time, albeit it's by email now, and she doesn't know that I'm her undead sister George, but I'm still able to communicate with her."  
  
"It's my five year old daughter, Danika I want to say goodbye to."  
  
"I'm kind of glad that I didn't have kids, because it would have been hard to leave them behind."  
  
"I guess it wouldn't be so hard if it wasn't for the fact that my daughter didn't have anyone but me, and I don't know where she's going to end up."  
  
I almost wanted to cry, and here I thought fate was a whore to me. "That must be so hard."  
  
He nodded. "It is, I just wish that I could know that she was going to be all right, you know a few years down the road."  
  
"You'll probably be able to keep an eye on her from a distance."  
  
"You think?"  
  
"Yeah, I communicate with my sister all the time, I have to use a different name, but I'm still able to find out what's going on her life. She lives in England, and has a few kids now."  
  
He shrugged. "It won't be the same."  
  
"I know, but at least it's better then nothing, it's one of the pitfalls of being undead."  
  
"I guess so."  
  
"You still don't want to believe it do you?"  
  
"Not really."  
  
"It took me a long time to get adjusted, and I tried a lot of tricks to get out being a reaper, and unfortunately none of them worked."  
  
He nodded. "So you're telling me that I have to just deal with being undead?" "Yeah, pretty much, it's not as bad as you think it is. This house is mine, the car is mine, and I don't even work!"  
  
He laughed. "How do you manage that?"  
  
"You learn tricks along the way."  
  
"How about we keep at that for now?"  
  
I smiled. "It's really not all bad, you get to meet some interesting people, and for me I got a second chance at a life."  
  
"You're a lot younger then me."  
  
"That's true, well maybe it's different when you're a little older and you have a family. I had my only serious relationship as a reaper."  
  
"How did you do that?"  
  
"For one thing I was with another reaper. And for another thing we're undead not dead DEAD!"  
  
He shrugged. "I don't know, this is all seems like some kind of joke to me still."  
  
"I think we all wish this is just a really bad trick someone is playing on us at first."  
  
"So how long have you been doing this for?"  
  
"Over thirty years anyway, let's just go with too long!"  
  
He laughed. "You look so young."  
  
"That's because we reapers don't age."  
  
"Well at least I won't look like I'm fifty in ten years!"  
  
"That's the spirit!"  
  
We talked a little while longer before Anika showed up. I had forgotten to wake Colt, but he came up shortly after her in his boxers. Colvin showed up moments later. Anika gave us each our assignment, and we all went on our way. She looked at me, and I was expecting what she was going to say next.  
  
"Look, I know that I'm supposed to show him the ropes, but you're really good at it, would you mind?" she asked me.  
  
"I don't mind, you're still getting used to this whole group leader thing I'm sure you need some time to organize."  
  
She nodded. "This is a lot of work, I'm starting to see why Rube acted like he had a stick shoved up his ass!"   
  
We both started laughing. "If you need me to help, I have plenty of time on my hands now that Mason's no longer here."  
  
Anika grinned, you ladies know the one. "Yeah, it must be a really big adjustment."  
  
"It is but, I guess that that is part of life."  
  
"And death apparently," Drew said coming back into the room. "I hope I'm not burdening you George."  
  
I looked at him, confused. "How so?"  
  
"Well first by needing to crash at your house, and second for having to go with you today."  
  
I shrugged. "I like having company, and besides you have to learn at some point, and since Anika has her own job to learn it's just as easy for me to take you along."  
  
"I just feel like I'm imposing."  
  
"Well, you're not, so hopefully that will help." I looked at my post-it, and realized we had to be all the way across town for my assignment. I didn't mind going all the way across town, but did I really want to be with Drew for that long? He was a nice guy, but I had no idea what we could talk about for any amount of time the chances of us having things in common were slim to none. Anika stayed to talk with him for a little while, and I went to my room to email Reggie, I didn't have anything really to tell her, but I was having a feeling like I had when she was still around just talk to her, just because. I sat on my computer and started typing;  
  
Reggie,   
  
I'm not writing you for any reason other then this feels like one of those times all those years ago where we would meet at the park and talk for hours, about nothing. I want to go back to those days, but can't. You're a world away, and we keep slipping further and further apart. You know you've always been like my little sister, and maybe this is what happens with siblings after a while, they cease to see each other, as their own lives begin to get too hectic, and too far apart. A part of you still wants, needs almost to go back to a time where things were easier, simpler, and we simply cannot do that no matter how much the other wants to. There is nothing more I want then to look of my window and see you, the little girl I met with the long pig tails sitting on the swing waiting to see her secret friend.   
  
I know I'm sounding like some stupid novel, and I'm sorry, it's just that with Mason going, and realizing that no one in my life is still around, not even my evil boss, it makes things hard. I want to go back to school again, but fear I'm getting to old. I want to do so many things that I just can't seem to do. I just needed to get that off my chest, and I wish I could tell you this all in person.   
  
-Millie  
  
I sent the email and sat at my computer, thinking about how much things have changed since I became a reaper, how much things seemingly didn't change at all for me. I really was fate's bitch. Everyone that was a reaper when I started is no longer a reaper, or at the very least not in this group. I have heard nothing from Roxy after she was transferred. Even Rube was gone, and I think that was what thru me, I never expected Rube to move on. I knew that he had been around for a while, but I always thought he was a cursed person whose fate was to be a reaper forever. I thought a lot about Mason as well, we had shared some amazing times together, and I knew that I would never be able to love anyone else the way I loved him. I sat in my room just long enough to make us almost late for my appointment, that would have been bad. It would have been great for Drew to pick up a bad habit I don't usually possess, lateness, on his first day.   
  
We got to where L. McGee was going to die. When I got there I realized it was an apartment building, I always hated apartment buildings, you never did know how your person was going to die, nor when you would actually be able to take his soul.   
  
"Normally, when you have an appointment it's in a more public place, because when people have accidents in their homes it makes things really difficult. You either have to get into their home, somehow, or you need to wait around till someone brings out a dead body and pop his soul," I explained to Drew.  
  
"Pop a soul?"  
  
"It's jargon, you'll pick up on it. Normally what we'd want to do is look around for risk factors, there are some out here, but seeing as the person is dying in their apartment, there is really no use for looking around. Anything can a risk factor, even if you don't think anyone could die on it. Gravelings are sneaky little fucks!"  
  
"Gravlings?"  
  
"Yeah, they're little creatures you can see out of the corner of your eye, who cause the accidents, or death. In this division it's usually an accident."  
  
"Division?"  
  
"I thought Anika had told you we're in the accidents, suicide, excreta division."  
  
"She mentioned that I must have forgotten."  
  
"You've probably been given a lot of information of late."  
  
"Yeah, I have."   
  
"Well as long as you remember that when you have an appointment to look for the danger signs, and when you pinpoint them, and see who it seems to be targeting, and take their soul before their ETD."  
  
"ETD?"  
  
"Estimated time of death. Trust me it's much better to get them before if at all possible.""You seem to know what you're taking about."  
  
"I tried a lot of stuff when I first started. I was young. I was stupid."  
  
He laughed. "We all were at one point. You're lucky you get to keep your youthful look. So how did you die?"  
  
"I got hit in the head with a flaming toilet seat, hurtling to earth from the space shuttle."  
  
"I see, and I thought that stepping in a puddle of water that was attached to a live wire was bad!"  
  
"I've never worked with someone who has a stupider death, although Colt getting murdered by a toothbrush is pretty damn close!"  
  
Drew laughed. We talked for until finally and ambulance showed up, and I was able to take L. McGee's soul. She showed up before us, and again, he got another fun part, a wayward soul.   
  
"What's going on?" she asked, confused.  
  
"I hate to break it to you sister, you're dead."  
  
"Fuck I knew I should have taken that Christmas tree down in January!"  
  
Yeah, our friend Lynn McGee had managed to get herself crushed by a Christmas tree in mid May! "Why was your tree still up?" I asked her as we went to sit down in the park.  
  
"Because, I usually keep my Christmas tree up until someone visits me after the holiday season is over, and this year no one came."  
  
I looked at her, and could tell that she had not lived a good life. "That's terrible, you don't have friends and family?"  
  
"I have both, kind of, but they don't tend to come and see me, we communicate in other ways, except at Christmas. Everyone always comes and visits me at Christmas, and sends me things to show that they care, and they do think of me, it's just that we're so far apart. So I keep the tree up to cheer me up until someone comes and visits me at another time of year."  
  
"Why don't you visit them?"  
  
"I'm having trouble dealing with being outside and I'm dead. You see, when I go outside I get terrible anxiety attacks, and cannot go more then a few steps outside. It's not people who bother me, I love people, it's just something about the world. It simply scares me. So most people I talk to on the phone, and online will visit me at Christmas when they're out and about."  
  
I nodded. She continued to tell me her sad life story until finally a light appeared, and inside it there were no less then fifty people inviting her into a huge, beautiful home. She smiled, and her features relaxed as she walked into the light, and it carried her away.  
  
"This is how death works, all we need to do is take a soul, and listen and try to help any souls that don't want to move along right away. And if you'd like, our friend Lee's apartment is free, and from what I hear no one comes to visit, so it may take some time before someone realizes you've taken over then place!"  
  
I kind of wished I had room for Drew, I really liked him, and it would be nice to have someone older around the house. I loved that Colt looked like he was my age, but I felt so much older, it would have helped to have someone a little older around, to keep me in check. When I got home I heard Colt singing, and playing a song. I went downstairs and asked him to play it again, I came in on the second verse and that was what really got me.   
  
Friday night   
  
My Sissie's in L.A.   
  
And I'm sittin' on mom's back porch   
  
I've been thinkin' again   
  
All I do is drink too much   
  
And dream up different ways   
  
To crawl a little further outta touch   
  
Waste away my days   
  
So you can listen to this song I sing   
  
But this song I sing is still for me   
  
This is my song   
  
This is my song   
  
So this is my life   
  
Wake me when it's over   
  
Coz I just turned 27   
  
But I'm feeling so much older   
  
I'm not supposed to be this bitter   
  
I'm not supposed to be this mad   
  
All my plans were so much bigger   
  
Than everything I am   
  
So you can listen to this song I sing   
  
But this song I sing is still for me   
  
This is my song   
  
This is my song   
  
My, my song  
  
Somedays I hate the way it's all come down   
  
I hate the way the scene's played out   
  
I hate the way the movie ends   
  
And I wish I could take back what's been said   
  
Coz I feel like maybe I've been wronged   
  
Coz I used to know where I belonged   
  
But these days I'm just not so strong   
  
Well this is my voice   
  
My, my song  
  
Colt told me that the song was called My song by a Canadian artist he likes called j. Englishman. I ended up buying the whole CD online one day, and really enjoyed most of it.   
  
When I went to bed that night the song was stuck in my head, and it almost made me want to cry. I missed Mason so much, and even though Colby was great company, nothing would ever be able to replace what I had with Mason. I was also thinking about my family a lot that night, not just Reggie either, after that I always checked to see if my parents were still alive, my mother more so then my father, but he will despite his faults always be my dad.  
  
End  
  
End notes: hope you all liked this one… think I should expand of the Joy thing or just leave it? I've got a couple more really cool ideas I want to try out before the end. I'm soooo excited to post my ending I think it's rather good, and then I'm going to have an epilogue explaining Anika's strange behavior leading up to her getting chosen as the new team leader!!!! (possibly different POV!) hugz and kissez trista aka the dustytiger 


	22. part 22

TITLE: A Day in the Life of a Grim Reaper; Behind the Cloak and Sickle (Part22of30)   
  
AUTHOR: trista   
  
DISCLAIMER: George and the concept is not mine, it belongs to MGM, showcase, Ellen Muth, and the creator of the series, the new characters are mine, but I don't think anyone will be borrowing them.  
  
RATING: PG-13 (for language, but the kids these days…)   
  
CONTENT: Reggie/Millie friendship, Mason/George romance   
  
SUMMARY: Reggie is in town for a funeral and George cannot talk to her, and it's the five year anniversary of Mason's leaving too! Ontop of that Anika has just learned of a disaster striking on Colvin's last day. How will everyone cope??  
  
AUTHORS NOTES: This one's one of the longer parts I've written, I really hope u enjoy it. I've skipped ahead another five years just cause there are some things I wanna do b4 the final time jump. The song featured in this fic is "lucky" by bif naked, off of I bificus which I highly recommend. I'm really thinking about doing a cd or something for those who want to hear the songs when I'm done the series cause there are a couple more songs I wanna use. I heard lucky on the radio the other day and kicked myself for not using it sooner I hope it works. Maybe I'll do a poll or something about the CD or email me at rockchicktristasympatico.ca if ur interested. FYI Colt and George are NOT getting together they are just really good friends.   
  
It had been years since I had been to the park, and someone had replaced the swings, but not added anything at all to the place. I guess I wasn't the only one that liked it just the way it was. I needed time to think, and my house was slowly becoming the reaper central. I hadn't minded so much when Anika started having everyone meet there at first, but soon it became a regular thing, and my sanctuary was gone, and I had to find somewhere else. The other reason I wanted to go there was that I wanted to turn back time, although I should know by now that that is impossible.   
  
The first reason I wanted to go back to the way things were that it was the fifth anniversary of the day that Mason moved on. That day had always been tough on me, and until recently I just spent it my bed. We had more then just good sex on that bed, and it made me feel better, but that was no longer an option, no one would leave me alone long enough for me to feel even a little better.  
  
The second thing happened when I opened the paper that morning and discovered that my mother had died. I was devastated, and discovered the her funeral was that day. I hated internment ceremonies, but decided that since she was my mother, that I should probably go, even if nobody knew who I was anymore, and I had to hide behind a tree.   
  
When I got there I was able to see Jenna and McKenna at long last, they were seven and nice, but they looked exactly like Reggie and I did when we were little. I could hardly believe that the woman standing with the two kids was my little sister. She turned around at one point when I got closer to group, and looked like she recognized me, so I went and hid again.  
  
I had put my hair up in pig tails, and didn't wear any make up, to try and make me look younger, so that she couldn't think that it could possibly be me. But her not recognizing me hurt at the same time, as it was the first time in forty years that we were in the same country, and I couldn't even speak to her. I should have looked like I was almost sixty, but instead I still looked like a teenager, I was still ID'ed and there was no way for me to talk face to face with my sister, so it was as if I had lost her again on that day.  
  
It was odd that I was mourning for someone I had mourned for forty years ago, I didn't think that I was able to mourn for my mother again, but apparently I could. I sat on the swing, staring at my hands, wishing that I could see my mother one last time, and tell her that I loved her. Wishing that she knew who I was when I told her.   
  
The part of the funeral I saw for my mother was beautiful, and my father new did show up. There had been whispers that he would show up, and try to make immense with Reggie, and I was glad that he didn't try it. It would not have been an appropriate setting. Of course there were also whispers that he was dead, married, divorced, bringing a young girl friend who was about 18, so I didn't really believe any of the stories that were floating around various ex family members.   
  
I was just glad that everything went well. It must have been my family that fate liked to fuck with, because fate made mother stick around an awful long time after her life turned to shit. I'm surprised that she didn't kill herself. I watched Reggie with her kids, and they looked they were just normal kids, and behaved really well. Max looked amazing, and I was glad to see that he looked just as in love with her as he did the day the married. I still wondered what processed those two to have kids.   
  
The more I watched her, the more I missed Mason, and the more I wanted to go somewhere quiet. The only place that I could think of that was quiet was the park right by the house. As soon as I sat down I wondered why I had stopped coming, then I remembered that I was technically 58, even if I would never look and my body didn't feel that old, mentally I felt much older, and it depressed me. The sandbox was still there, but I was afraid to touch the sand like object that grew from it. I laid down in the freshly mowed grass and I began to sob. Just as I was about to regain my composure I saw Reggie walk up with her two kids. I scurried behind a hill and she didn't seem to notice.  
  
"You know Millie, who I always talk about?" she asked them.  
  
"Yeah!" they both chorused.  
  
"This is the park I told you that we used to meet at. I still think that she was somehow my sister. You remember me telling you about your Aunt George?"  
  
"Yeah," said McKenna. "I wish we could have known her, and then maybe we'd have cousins!"  
  
Reggie tried to laughed, but I could tell by the tone of her voice, that she was about to cry. "I was hoping that maybe she'd come here if she had seen the obituary."  
  
I wanted to run out and tell her that I had seen the obituary, and that I was there, and that I had been at the services, but there was no way I could explain my look, so I had to just keep hiding behind a little hill, hoping that no one would find me. The kids didn't even ask to swing and soon I was, again, alone in the park, with my memories, and thoughts. I decided to go home before someone had me committed.   
  
I hated fate letting me loose two of the most important people in my life, even if it was five years apart. Mason's death day was already hard enough on me, I didn't need to think about my mother too.   
  
I had a routine down when it came to dealing with Mason's death, though it got thrown off when I found out that my mother had died.   
  
Usually I'd ask for that day to be my one day I could take off a year, because I could not concentrate on anything for very long, and then I'd listen to a couple of songs that reminded me of Mason, and mostly just wallowed. That year everything got messed up with my house becoming reaper central, and finding out that I had funeral services to attend to. I was glad to discover when I got home that no one else was there. I went to my room, and I began to play a song that always made me think of my relationship with Mason. It made me cry, but by the end I always felt slightly better.   
  
It was a Monday, when my lover told me,  
  
"never pay the reaper with love only. "  
  
What could i say to you, except, "i love you. "  
  
And "i'd give my life for yours. "  
  
I know we are: we are the lucky ones.  
  
I know we are: we are the lucky ones.  
  
I know we are: we are the lucky ones, dear.  
  
The first time we made love, i: i wasn't sober.  
  
(and you told me you loved me over and over!)  
  
How could i ever love another, when i miss you every day:  
  
Remember the time we made love in the roses?  
  
(and you took my picture in all sorts of poses!)  
  
How could i ever get over you, when i'd give my life for yours.  
  
I know we are... we are the lucky ones.  
  
I know we are... we are the lucky ones.  
  
I know we are... we are the lucky ones.  
  
I know we are: we are the lucky ones, dear.  
  
My dear, It's time to say i thank god for you.  
  
I thank god for you in each and every single way.  
  
And, i know... i know... i know... i know...  
  
It's time to let you know. time to let you know.  
  
Time to let you know. time to sit here and say:  
  
I know we are... we are the lucky ones.  
  
I know we are... we are the lucky ones.  
  
I know we are... we are the lucky ones.  
  
I know we are: we are the lucky ones, dear.  
  
We are the lucky ones, dear...  
  
I listened to it a few times, realizing just how true it was for us. It had the word "reaper" in it which was pretty appropriate, but when he was alive I did feel very lucky to be able to be with him. After all had I not become a reaper I would never have fallen in love before I died. I missed him still though, and it was a beautiful song.   
  
Sometimes when I listened to it I could close my eyes and it was as if Mason was holding me while I listened. I wished that somehow he could just come back to me for one more day. I guess I was lucky most people didn't have a chance to say goodbye to the people they loved, and I was able to spend a whole day with him knowing it would be our last one together. I never got that with the family I lost when I died. Just then there was a knock at the door, and was actually kind of glad to see Colt standing, waiting to see if I'd let him in.  
  
"Come on in," I said to him.  
  
"I know that you usually want to be alone today, but I heard the song you've been playing and I was drawn to it," he explained.  
  
"It's pretty isn't it?" I asked him, laying down on my bed.  
  
"Yeah, it is, I thought you may want to talk today, I saw the obituary for your mother." I nodded. "Yeah, I went over to service."  
  
"And?"  
  
"It was nice, but I couldn't talk to Reggie and that was really hard."  
  
He gave me a sympathetic look. "I don't know how I'd be able to deal with that. I'd want to go up and tell her the truth."  
  
"I want to but I don't want to know what the consequences would be. All this means is that I have to make an excuse as to why I didn't go to the service, and why I'm busy."  
  
"That makes sense, got anything?"  
  
"Yeah, I didn't know her mother very well, and I can't get out of work this time of year. She doesn't know what I do and doesn't ask."  
  
He nodded. "Too bad you can't just go see her."  
  
"I would if I thought that I looked any older then the last time I saw her."  
  
"Well the hair due doesn't help."  
  
"I was trying to look younger so she really wouldn't think it's me."  
  
We fell quiet for a moment, Colt and I did that all the time, right in the middle of a conversation, we'd just go quiet, and soon we'd start talking.   
  
"You know what I never have understood if you and Mason were so meant for each other why did you never get married or have kids?"  
  
I shrugged. "We didn't have kids because reapers can't have kids together, simple as that. We didn't get married because neither of us have family, and we have few friends, what was the point of having the ceremony for the sake of having it?"  
  
He nodded. "Well that makes perfect sense then."  
  
"We thought so."  
  
"I kind of wish I would have known him."  
  
"If you knew him then it would have been hard for you to become a reaper."  
  
"And then I wouldn't have been able to meet you."  
  
I smiled. "It's a shame Mason stole my heart a long time ago."  
  
He shrugged. "Such is life. I'm glad to have you as a friend."  
  
I hugged him. "As much as I miss Mason I wouldn't have things any other way."  
  
He smiled. "I'm glad to hear it."  
  
We talked a little longer before someone came barging into the house, unfortunately it was Colvin, I was not impressed. He came into the room, and proceeded to plot himself down on my bed.  
  
"Have you ever heard of knocking?" I asked him, annoyed.  
  
"I have, but I wanted to surprise you, Peanut," he told me.  
  
"Don't call me that ass wipe!"   
  
"Touchy, aren't we. Anyway you'll be glad to know that I'm going to be taking my last soul tomorrow."  
  
"Good!"  
  
"You're not even going to miss me a little?"  
  
"Probably not."  
  
He left looking dejected, and I didn't really care, the guy was a thorn in my side since he joined the group, and I was glad to see him gone. I just hoped that fate wouldn't decided to totally fuck with me and replace him with someone even more annoying. Colt left shortly after Colvin as he had an appointment, leaving me alone with my thoughts again. I went to the computer to see if Reggie had emailed me before she had left England. Sure enough there was new message in my inbox.Hey Millie,  
  
I guess I should have told you before the services that my mother had died, just in case for any reason you wanted to be there. I would love to meet with you at the park after the service today though, if you get this message in time. I want you to meet my kids, and just to talk a little bit. It's been too long since we've seen each other. I won't be too mad if you don't come today because I know that you're dealing with the Mason thing today, it's hard to believe it's been five years. You would think that by now someone would know SOMETHING. I should go though, internet cafes at airports are not cheap. Stupid plane delays!   
  
-Reggie  
  
I replied to the email responding that I didn't find out until after she emailed me about her mother dying, and that I would have loved to have been there if it had been possible. I felt a little guilty about lying to her though, but I had no other choice. As much as it pained me I had to come to terms with the fact that I could not go see my sister while we were in the same country.   
  
I climbed into my bed, surprised to find a teddy bear that Mason had bought me for our one month anniversary all those years ago. It was light blue, and very soft. I had thought I lost it, and was certainly not expecting to find it on Mason's side of the bed five years after he stopped being a reaper. I began to cry and must have fallen asleep as I had a dream about him.  
  
"Hey Georgie," he told me in the dream. "It's just not the same without you."  
  
"Mason!" I exclaimed running toward him to hug him. When I did it was so real. "I miss you so much."  
  
"I miss you too, I'm sorry about your mother."  
  
"It was her time I guess."  
  
He nodded. "Even with all the girls around here I only want you."  
  
"And here I thought you couldn't change a player."  
  
"You could change anyone George."  
  
"George!!" I heard a female voice screaming, waking me up from my amazing dream.  
  
"I'm upstairs Anika!" I snapped. "What do you want?"  
  
She appeared at the top of the staircase. "I know you asked for today off, but something unexpected happened, and we need all the help we can get, especially with Colvin having to take his last soul tonight instead of tomorrow, they're going to send someone from another division down after Colvin's gone, but we're still going to have our work cut out for us." "What's going on?"  
  
"I don't know, all I know is where it's happening and that there are almost too many people to keep track of."  
  
I didn't even have time to change out of my frumpy funeral clothes before Anika was dragging me out of the house, everyone else was already waiting. We piled into the car and drove where Anika told me to. I was very confused when we got there. Moments after we arrived another person showed up, to stand in front of the large office building.   
  
"Are any of you Anika?" asked the stranger.  
  
"Yeah, me, you must be Luc!" Anika exclaimed, she looked as if she wanted to hug him.  
  
"So how are we going to do this?"  
  
"Anyone going into this building gets their soul taken, all I know is that there will be no survivors, no one has any specific souls to grab, it's pretty much a free for all," Anika explained.   
  
"I don't like the sound of this."  
  
People started to file in, and she was right it was in the thousands that they were coming. We simply grabbed all the souls we could, none of us even noticed that Colvin was gone. He had not moved on, but didn't have the ability to take any souls. Luc told me later that he had seen Colvin trying to take souls with no luck, and walked away. A few moments after we collected all the souls we all walked away, not knowing what might happen to it. All of a sudden there was aloud sound of something breaking, and the whole building just collapsed.  
  
It turned out the building was very old, and some construction workers had taken out the wrong beams when they tried to add more office space in the basement. No one in the building knew what happened, and didn't have time to get out.  
  
I remembered Mason warning me about how terrible situations like that were, but I never really understood until I saw all the death just how terrible it was. Most of the souls moved along pretty quickly, and since I was supposed to off Anika told me after I popped all the souls I needed to that I could go home. I was very glad that we had warning about what was going to happen, kind of, because I could hardly imagine who terrible it would have to be to go through the destruction to get out all the souls.   
  
I was awake when Colt got home, and he looked exhausted and run ragged. Luc was in toe, and I was a little surprised.  
  
"Look, I know it's not really my house, but Luc really helped us out today and he needed a place to stay," Colt explained to me.  
  
"That's fine, it's not like he's going to be in town for very long, after all tomorrow whoever Colvin popped today will be the new reaper, and Luc here can go back to whatever division he's from."  
  
"Plague division," he explained.  
  
"That's why you didn't seem to fazed by what you saw today," Colt said shaking his head.  
  
"You get used to mass deaths after a while I guess," Luc explained.  
  
"Worst I dealt with before today was a cult," I informed them. "I was warned on that trip that collapsed and exploded buildings are much worse."  
  
"As I said you really do get used to it."  
  
Colt and I nodded. I went and got Luc some blankets, and Colt and I went upstairs to talk a little bit more. We sat down on my bed, and he looked as if he was going to cry.  
  
"What's wrong Colt?" I asked him.  
  
"Death on a small scale I can deal with, this much death is just too much, people shouldn't die like that. If we hadn't taken the souls before hand some of those people would have suffered up to half an hour, completely aware of what was going on as they died!"  
  
"Death is a part of life."  
  
"I know! I know! But I don't want to see any more of it. I've only been doing this five years and I've seen so much death I want to personally have a talk with God to see what we can do to stop it!"  
  
"Sometimes it's people's times!"  
  
"Not the people who's souls we take, George, they have life left in them, and someone decides it should be taken away. Today was unnecessary, it's like whatever is in control of the universe doesn't seem to want anyone to be happy and safe. An office building came tumbling down today, and no one had enough warning to get out alive, no one, not a single solitary survivor."  
  
"Life is short, and brutal."  
  
Tears began to roll down his eyes. "How do you do it George?"  
  
"Do what?"  
  
"Continue being a reaper?"  
  
I shrugged. "Because I have to."  
  
"Why are we forced to do something we don't want to do!?"  
  
"I don't know Colt, it's just the way the world works I guess. None of us wants to be a reaper, but it's what has been decided for us, and we can't do anything about it, the consequences are simply to uncertain."  
  
He ended up falling asleep in my bed, and I didn't even care, I turned opposite to him, and I fell asleep shortly after, it felt nice to have someone else in my bed with me, not just the cat.  
  
End  
  
End notes hope you like my little xmas present to 'ya hehe…. Up next what happened to the guy that replaced Colvin, and how long is Luc going to be around for? 


	23. part 23

TITLE: A Day in the Life of a Grim Reaper; Behind the Cloak and Sickle (Part22of30)   
  
AUTHOR: trista   
  
DISCLAIMER: George and the concept is not mine, it belongs to MGM, showcase, Ellen Muth, and the creator of the series, the new characters are mine, but I don't think anyone will be borrowing them.  
  
RATING: PG-13 (for language, but the kids these days…) bordering R for a sex convo  
  
CONTENT: Reggie/Millie friendship, Mason/George romance   
  
SUMMARY: Luc tells George he wants to sleep with her, she needs advice. What's this about temp reapers? Read on to find out.  
  
AUTHORS NOTES: I'm going song happy, deal with it, I got an MP3 player for xmas, and well there are lots of songs that I listen to and want to incorporate into the story. Today's song is…. "the next big thing" by a local (Ottawa) band called spread. For the ppl who have done my poll thinger about the CD thanx, the rest of you hop over there PLEASE, I'll be emailing ppl soon, it seems they're changing the mail prices in caunkistan so I'll have to hop over to the post office to get prices.Enough of the chit-chat on with the fic!!!  
  
I woke up the next morning, not really surprised that Anika was there, although I was a little surprised that she didn't show up with anyone else, Drew got there shortly after Anika, and we all sat down at the kitchen table, Luc had made coffee when he woke up so everyone had some of that to drink. We were all pretty anxious to hear what Anika had to say about Luc showing up, and why someone else hadn't shown up to take Colvin's place. Luc seemed really nice though, and I was hoping that he would be staying for a while.  
  
"All right, I guess the first thing I need to explain is what happened with Colvin, and for how long Luc is going to be with us," Anika said, we all nodded. "It seems that Luc has taken Colvin's place, temporarily as he only has a few more souls to reap before he's done. Whoever replaced Colvin ended up in plague division, and when Luc has collected his last soul then a new, old reaper will come to replace him."  
  
"So you mean we're going to have temp reapers in the group now?" I asked.  
  
"Pretty much, yeah," Anika explained.  
  
I shook my head. "Whatever, can I get my post-it now, I wanna go for a walk."  
  
"Someone's PMSing," Luc said.  
  
"Go fuck yourself!"  
  
Anika handed my post-it and I stormed out the door. The arrogance of the little bastard, after I let him crash at my house. Well, Colt's house too, but still he could be a little nicer! Everyone was going to be pissing me off that day, I was just in a foul mood. I looked at my post-it, crumpled it up and tried to throw it at tree. Seeing that a post-it is small it didn't go very far. I wanted to just start to scream, I needed a release, and I needed it quick. I was surprised to notice that Luc had followed me out of the house.  
  
"George, I'm sorry, I was just trying to make a joke, I didn't realize were a feminist," he explained.  
  
"I'm not a feminist, thank you very much."  
  
"There's nothing wrong with that if you are."  
  
"You make it sound like a disease! I'm just in a bad mood, I don't know why."  
  
"Well you want to talk about it, I'll listen."  
  
I nodded. "Thanks, and you can stay at the house till your time is up."  
  
"Thanks, that's really classy of you."  
  
I smiled. "So how long have you been a reaper for anyway?"  
  
"A little over a hundred years."  
  
"Shit, that sucks, and here I am bitching about forty years."  
  
"Well that explains your mood, it's a really tough milestone."  
  
"Why at forty?"  
  
"Who knows, every reaper I've known goes through a funk when they hit forty years as a reaper."  
  
I shrugged. "I don't remember Mason doing that and he was at about forty years when I met him."  
  
"You knew Mason?"  
  
"I only messed around with him, if you will, for over thirty years!""Oh! You're toilet seat girl, I thought Anika was!"  
  
"Thanks for that, I haven't been called that in a few years! How do you know Mason?"  
  
"Everyone knew Mason, we were pretty good friends a few years before you became a reaper, he went through his slump earlier then most reapers. Besides, even if he hadn't he wouldn't have gotten too upset seeing as he had you in his life."  
  
I blushed. "You sound like him when you say stuff like that."  
  
"I aim to please."  
  
I smiled. "Look, you're very nice and all, but I wouldn't feel right pursuing anything, Mason took my heart with him." "I'm not looking for a heart, I'm looking to make you feel better."  
  
I shook my head. "That is not what I need."  
  
He shrugged. "Whatever."  
  
Again, I walked away from him, glad that my appointment was early, but I wasn't sure what I'd do the rest of the day to avoid him. I knew he was only a temp but he was gong to be staying at my house. It was nice to have someone pay attention to me, but there was a part of me that felt like I was being unfaithful to Mason. Maybe I'd talk to Colt later, or email Reggie, I needed another opinion, actually I probably needed many more then one opinion.  
  
I went to where my appointment was, and stood at the street corner only half paying attention, I'm surprised I even noticed that the manhole cover was left open. I guess after a while even when grim reaping you can become a monkey. I stood by the open manhole and just at the right time I reached over and popped the soul of a young man, who was busy listening to his personal CD player. I could have been reading a book, or making out with someone and I still would have taken that soul at the right time. It really depressed me. Of course since I was having a piss poor day the soul had to be a wayward one, at least he'd kill time before I had to deal with Luc again, I should have asked him when his appointment was.  
  
"Holy shit!" exclaimed the now soul. "Am I dead?"  
  
"Yup," I replied.  
  
"By falling into the manhole?"  
  
"Yup."  
  
"This is like so Wiley Coyote!" He laughed  
  
"Yup, we see that a lot."  
  
"We? How is we?"  
  
"We, grim reapers."  
  
"You mean there's more then one"  
  
"Yup."  
  
"Far out!! That's too cool! How can I sign up to be a grim reaper?"  
  
I shook my head. "You don't sign up, you're chosen."  
  
"Was I chosen?"  
  
"Nope, if you had been chosen I wouldn't be standing here right now."  
  
"Damn! Not that I'm pissed you're here or anything, I must be really lucky to have gotten such a beautiful reaper!"  
  
I half smiled. "Thanks, but I'm taken, and I don't think reapers and the dead can do that."  
  
He pouted. "Well isn't that a shame, so what's next?"  
  
"Usually you move on."  
  
"Cool, how do I do that?"  
  
"Well most people see something and go to it?"  
  
"What kind of something?"  
  
"Something that they like, their heaven I guess."  
  
"That's so cool. What was yours like?"  
  
"I haven't seen it yet, and if this was my idea of heaven I'd need some serious therapy."  
  
He started to laugh uncontrollably, the signature laugh of a pothead. He soon saw a giant bong appear in front of him, and went to him. At one point that bong would have been something that Mason would not have been able to resist, and now he was gone. I walked home, slowly, taking my time as to not want to deal with Luc. When I did get home, I was happy to learn that no one was home, so I took the opportunity to email Reggie.  
  
Hi,  
  
I know that I just emailed you and stuff, but I really need an opinion about something. One of Mason's friends has just moved in near by, and I'm wondering if I should just go for the casual thing with him while he's here. It seems so stupid, and I don't really think that I need sex that bad, sure it's been five years, but how long did I go before I had it? I need a girl's opinion on this, please get back to me as soon as you can.   
  
-Millie  
  
I thought I was alone, and then from downstairs I heard a guitar, and singing.  
  
And the feeling turns against you inside,   
  
and you leave it all in the back of your mind  
  
I'd take it in but I know it goes through you  
  
And the photograph the drowns you in lies  
  
Has made it through all the doubt in their eyes  
  
But you leave it all when a superstar calls you  
  
Nobody knows…   
  
Nobody knows …what you do as you are  
  
And if I see in my truth it's you will be right there  
  
And if I see in my truth it's you'll be the next  
  
You'll be the next big thing  
  
It's just how you waited   
  
Never stops the things you crave  
  
And it fills out each waiting that fools you  
  
Slept through my favorite song  
  
But the glass house still gets it wrong  
  
And you read out the lyrics they're used to!  
  
Nobody knows… what you do as you are  
  
Nobody knows …what you do, what you are  
  
And if I see in my truth it's you will be right there  
  
And if I see in my future it's you will be somewhere  
  
And if is see in my truth it's you'll be the next   
  
You'll be the next big thing  
  
Nobody knows… what you do as you are  
  
And if I see in my truth it's you will be right there  
  
And if I see in my future it's you will be somewhere  
  
And if is see in my truth it's you'll be the next  
  
You'll be the next big thing  
  
You will, you will you'll be the next big thing!  
  
All of us are near  
  
All of us are near  
  
And all… all of us are near  
  
I went downstairs, and knocked lightly on the door after he was done. He looked up, and gave me a half hearted smile, I swore the big toughie was crying, but I didn't call him on it. He looked as depressed as I felt.   
  
"What's wrong?" I asked him.  
  
"My band made it big, and I'm not even in it anymore!" he exclaimed.  
  
"Oh…"  
  
"This song spoke to me when heard it, fuck can you believe it, I could have been a rockstar, and instead I got killed with a fucking toothbrush! A toothbrush, and the little prick that did it is now the fucking rockstar!" He picked up the guitar and threw it against the wall on the other side of the room.  
  
"Colt!" I screamed. "I still have to live here!"  
  
"I'm mad all right!?"  
  
"And ruining your guitar, that is one of your only connections with your life is going to make you less mad?"  
  
He all of a suddenly started to cry. "Nothing is going to make me feel less mad George!"  
  
"Colt, I know that you think that there is no way that you can get over this, and you know what you won't entirely, but eventually it won't hurt so much."  
  
"How would you know that!?"   
  
"For one thing the person who replaced the only person I've loved is my best friend, and I didn't even think I'd ever be able to look at you without crying, or being angry, and here we are."  
  
He shrugged. "Why is it that the fucking song is in high rotation!? I wrote the damn thing! There's no mention of me anywhere!"  
  
"There is probably something on the liner notes."  
  
He stood up and began to pace around the room. "The liner notes! No one even reads that, I get no credit for anything!" "You're dead, well undead, but as far as they know you're dead!"  
  
"But the little fucked got away with killing me and is now reaping in my money while I have to reap souls for a fucking living! I have to steal to eat, and kills me and steals my life and gets everything! Where the hell is the justice in that George?"  
  
"I couldn't tell you, if I understood how fate worked I'd be very happy. I wish I understood why fate takes great joy in ripping our hearts into shreds as reapers, I mean its hard enough to see so much death without your life being shit too!"  
  
"This fucking sucks."  
  
"Big time."  
  
"So why are you so grumpy today anyway?"  
  
"Luc said something about all reapers going through this grumpy phase."  
  
"How are you going to get out of it?"  
  
I shrugged. "He suggested sex."  
  
"Well, it has been five years, hasn't it George?"  
  
"How would you know?"  
  
"I've lived with you that long and have near seen you with a guy."  
  
"Why do guys seem to think that having sex with someone is going to make me feel better. I'd feel like I was cheating on Mason."  
  
"He's not here, you can't be cheating on him, besides if you can have sex where he is I'm sure he's having casual sex too. I mean can you imagine the hotties that are there?"  
  
I rolled my eyes. "It doesn't make it right."  
  
"It's just sex, it's not having any kind of close relationship with a guy, it's just fulfilling your carnal desires for one night."  
  
I shook my head. "I don't know if I can do that making love is about two people who care about each other coming together." "We're not talking about making love, George, we're talking about sex, just sex, for the point of having sex. You cant' tell me that you've never done it."  
  
"Mason was my first."  
  
He nodded. "All right, well then at least you're not giving yourself away. It's fun."  
  
"I'm sure that it is, Colt, but I'm not about to jump into bed with every guy I see!"  
  
"I'm not telling you to do that, you have an offer from a guy that you kind of know. There are ways of preventing getting into trouble."  
  
"I really don't know about this, Colt it seems wrong."  
  
"If you were a guy would you think it was wrong for him to have a one night stand with whomever he pleases?"  
  
"I guess not."  
  
"You didn't think Mason was a slut for being around before you were with hime?  
  
"No!"  
  
"Then don't think of yourself as a slut if you be with Luc. It's for one night, and after he moves on you don't have to deal with him anymore. It's a win win situation, you'll get what you need to get out of your slump, and he'll get what he thinks he needs as a send off to the real afterlife."  
  
I shrugged. "You make it seem so easy."  
  
"It is that easy, for a guy anyway, I don't understand why it can't be so easy for you too."  
  
"And as a guy you don't see the girl as a slut?"  
  
"No! It's not like you're going and screwing anything you come across! That's a slut. It's women who call women who like sex sluts, not men. Men are just glad to find people with similar sex drives."I smiled. "I guess so."  
  
"I bet that's part of what Mason liked about you, you were probably able to keep up with him a lot more then most of the women he was with."  
  
I blushed. "Well, but he had no way of knowing that before we were together!"He shrugged. "No, but he didn't know he loved you when you two first hooked up."  
  
"I know you're right, but I'm not sure I can just have sex with some guy I've only just met."  
  
"It's your choice, George, I hate to cut this short but I have an appointment I should be getting to."  
  
He stood he got up and picked up his guitar, and laid it against a wall. He was looking a lot less upset then when I walked in. He went to leave and gave me a big bear hug.  
  
"Thank you, I feel better," he told me. "I should know by now I can't control anything from my other life. I think I'll be okay, but I can still come talk to you?"  
  
"Always," I whispered. "And thank you for a male opinion, I hope I get my female one soon."  
  
End   
  
End notes: what's George going to do?? Find out in the next installment, which should be posted pretty soon. Then I'm not sure what's going to happen, but I've got little parts of future parts started already! Moonie, I'll make Luc's replacement temp a female just for you, kay?   
  
Hugz and kissez trista aka the dustytiger 


	24. part 24

TITLE: A Day in the Life of a Grim Reaper; Behind the Cloak and Sickle (Part24of30)   
  
AUTHOR: trista   
  
DISCLAIMER: George and the concept is not mine, it belongs to MGM, showcase, Ellen Muth, and the creator of the series, the new characters are mine, but I don't think anyone will be borrowing them.  
  
RATING: R for sexual references  
  
CONTENT: Reggie/Millie friendship, Mason/George romance George/Luc sex  
  
SUMMARY: George decides to take the plunge (no pun intended, you'll see why)  
  
AUTHORS NOTES: All right this as close as NC-17 as I'm going to write, and the juciest dets you're going to get about G&M's relastionship, so deal with it! Song used in this one is black lab's keep yourself awake. You may be able to find this one of the buffy OST too, if it's from there someone please confirm. I don't know why I fit it there, feel free to bitch slap me if you hate where I put it. I got a little ambitious and the two kind of go hand in hand, but since the concept is A (one) day in the life I had to make it two parts… couldn't leave 'ya hanging though…   
  
Thanx goes to my wonderful boy and a special friend for the handle on the first person situation….  
  
On with the show….  
  
The next morning when I woke up I decided to just sleep with Luc, as long as Reggie thought that it was an okay idea. After all she had been raised the same way as I did, and if she didn't have a problem with me having causal sex with some guy I didn't know then I knew that what I was thinking wasn't completely wrong and immoral! I could hardly believe that I was actually seriously considering having sex with someone just for the sake of having sex with them, Daisy would be proud.  
  
I pushed the cat aside, and went downstairs, knowing that Anika and everyone else would soon be showing up. Luc was still sleeping, and look at him, I had to admit he was very attractive. He was tall with nice eyes, not as great as Colt's though, and a good build. It wasn't a bad thing that he wanted to have sex with me, it was me who needed to give up her morals a little. There was nothing wrong if I did decide to just have sex with him.  
  
After I had made the coffee Luc got up, and didn't mention anything about the conversation the day before, I was glad as I still didn't know what I was going to do. Moments later Colt had followed the smell of coffee up the stairs. I don't even think his eyes were open until he took his first sip of coffee. I noted to myself not to change where we kept the coffee maker or he'd injure himself.  
  
Anika handed out our post-its, and had Luc stay behind after we all dispersed, meaning that his time with us was very short, and I had to act quick, his last soul was probably going to be the next day. I went immediate upstairs to check my email, and was relieved to find that Reggie had emailed me back.Hello,  
  
Millie, I'm married so I don't know what to tell you, other then you're not that much older then me and you're not dead!   
  
I know that you don't like to hear this, but Mason is not coming back, and I know that he broke your heart, but I highly doubt you'll be in a serious relationship with the first guy you're with after him.   
  
Have fun! You would have been doing that had you not gotten into a serious relationship so young! So live like you're young again, and just be careful about it.   
  
That's all I can really say about that.  
  
-Reggie  
  
I was very relieved that she thought that it wasn't a bad idea, even if she didn't know the truth about Mason. It was true, he wasn't coming back, and there should be no reason why I was becoming a prude, and grumpy. Especially when I had an opportunity to see if I could get out of my funk right in front of me. If I didn't cease the opportunity it's be a while before it arose again. What was that saying? Carpe Diem? It was about time I did. I decided to not tell Luc right away, as much fun as it would be to tease him, we both had other things to focus on that day. I looked my post-it, and discovered that It wasn't far from my house, and it was half way through the day. I was kind of curious where Luc's was, and at what time. I went downstairs.  
  
"Hi," I said. "When's yours?"  
  
"One thirty," he told me.  
  
"Mine too." I held out the post it.   
  
"It seems that we're going to be going to the same place."  
  
"Well that's a good thing I guess."  
  
"So you've forgiven me for what I said yesterday?"  
  
"Thought about it a lot, and yeah, there's no point in being mad."  
  
He shrugged. "I find you attractive, and seeing as my last day is tomorrow even if we had wanted we couldn't have had anything real."  
  
"I don't want anything real, I still hold out hope that I will be reunited with Mason in whatever is to come."  
  
"You still believe that there is something good ahead?"  
  
"I wouldn't be able to do this if I thought that people were falling into a void, or worse going to hell."  
  
He shrugged. "That's rather noble of you."  
  
I shook my head. "We all have our beliefs I suppose, and I guess it's all about learning how to respect the beliefs of others."  
  
He nodded. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize that you didn't do the casual sex thing."  
  
"How do you know that I don't?"  
  
"From the way you reacted yesterday."  
  
"You have to remember I was eighteen when I died and Mason was the first person I was with. I don't know what my feelings on the matter are because I never really had to think about it. I went from being very single to very much in love."  
  
"I can understand that, have never done that but I understand what you're telling me."  
  
When he wasn't acting like an ass, he wasn't a bad guy. Somehow I was glad that he was going to be leaving the next day, I think that had he been staying I probably would have changed my mind about the whole thing. I would be afraid that it would get too serious. A casual relationship seemed even more stressful then a real one. At least in a real relationship you could always fall back on your love for one another. We kind of just stopped talking and avoided each other the rest of the day. We hardly even spoke when we got to the spot where our appointments were that day.   
  
It was a pretty simple death. A couple had decided that to celebrate their love for one another they would bungee jump together. For whatever reason they decided that it would be a good idea to not get professionals involved. Someone told me that they thought it was more romantic to do it all by themselves. Here I thought that love was blind, not stupid.   
  
To make a long story short they forgot that the point of bungee cord is that it stretches and when they jumped off the side of the cliff they simply kept falling until they ended up on the ground in a rather gruesome mess. The couple appeared on the top of the cliff, looking at each other, confused.  
  
"I don't remember anything," the woman said.  
  
"Look down, you're dead," I told her, good god I really had picked up on some of Mason's worst reaping habits.  
  
She looked down at the mess that lay underneath her, and would have puked if souls had the ability to do so, which just all the more proved to her that she was really dead. They took it pretty well, and seemed to be happy together.   
  
"I just have one question," said the man. "What did we do wrong?"  
  
"Bungee cord needs room to bungee," Luc explained, shaking his head.  
  
The man started to laugh uncontrollably until the woman pointed out two parasails in the distance, and the couple went towards them. I never did understand extreme sports types. I was undead and I thought that doing anything like that was incredibly stupid. Maybe it was the inability to die that made it so unappealing. That much rehab seemed like an awful lot of stuff to go through on top of work.  
  
"I'm sorry that I keep pissing you off, I'm really not trying to," Luc explained.  
  
"How much do I have to like what you act like if all I want to do is fuck you?" I asked him.  
  
His jaw dropped. "Did you say what I think you just said?"  
  
"What did you think I said?"  
  
"That you wanted to fuck me."  
  
"Then your ears are working."  
  
"What made you change your mind?"  
  
I shrugged. "I talked with a couple of people, and they seemed to agree that having sex may good for me, and since you offered I figured I may as well take you up on the offer. Who knows when an offer may pop up again."  
  
"To be honest I don't care what made you change your mind, I'm just glad you did."  
  
"You seem awfully excited about this."  
  
"I told you already you're beautiful."  
  
I found out much later from another temp that Luc and Mason had had a rivalry going on until he started going out with me. I guess somehow he thought sleeping with me would beat Mason. Crazy person love is much more important then a name on a scorecard. I kind of wished that I had of known that before hand or else I would have waited for someone else. It wasn't having sex that I regretted, it was who I had it with. I made me feel very dirty and like I had hurt him in a way that could not be fixed. The other thing that kind of got to me was that I had sex with another man in Mason's bed, but I couldn't very well go anywhere else.  
  
We got home and we went almost right to my room. It wasn't as romantic as when I was with Mason. There were times when we had quickies, but for the most part it was very romantic, with a lot of touching, and hugging, and kissing, and "I love you's" involved. With Luc it was very different, very primal.  
  
For one thing I always liked foreplay better then sex with Mason, but Luc didn't seem to like that and what I wanted didn't seem as important as what he wanted, so there was very little but the actual intercourse.  
  
When I was with Mason I sometimes let him be in control, and it made me feel good but when control was forced upon me I didn't really like it that much, but beggars can't be choosers, and there was no way that it would happen again, so I just went with it. I didn't even bother to tell him that I didn't really enjoy and only came because it had been so long since I had felt a man inside me.  
  
The other thing that I had a lot of trouble with was that whenever Mason and I made love we would hold each other after, but Luc just left after he was done. All the way though the experience I kept reminding myself that it was sex not love making, but it still didn't seem right to me. But I was very glad for the release. After we finished I read a book, and moped around the house, and just busied myself until it was time for bed.   
  
I was surprised when he came back right as I was getting into bed. I don't know what made me do it again, but I had sex with him again. That time all I could think of was the close your eyes and think of England advise. I seriously just stared at the ceiling, there was nothing romantic or nice about it at all. I wanted more then anything for him to just morph into Mason who was so gentle and nice to me. I was glad when it was over, but I didn't regret it.   
  
After he left I had turned on my radio and fell asleep. I had a dream about Mason, and heard a song that made me cry, when I was thinking about him.  
  
Black Lab - keep myself awake à song plays after G&L hook up before he moves on  
  
I hate to talk like this, I hate to wipe this in  
  
Suffer all that I can say  
  
I have this dream at night, almost every night  
  
I've been dreaming it forever  
  
It's easy to remember it…  
  
It's always cold, It's always day   
  
You always here, You always say  
  
I'm all right, I'll be okay   
  
If I can keep myself awake  
  
Keep myself awake  
  
Get up early and look around me and  
  
Can't help but wonder what you need  
  
Cause when I'm sleeping an'  
  
So deep an'  
  
It's so much more real to me  
  
Closer then reality  
  
It's always cold, It's always day   
  
You're alway always here, You always say  
  
I'm all right, I'll be okay   
  
If I can keep myself awake  
  
Keep myself awake  
  
Keep myself awake  
  
Keep myself awake  
  
Get up early in and   
  
Look around me and  
  
Buyin' coffee by the pound  
  
When I'm sleepin' an'   
  
So deep an'  
  
I keep myself awake  
  
Keep myself awake  
  
Keep myself awake  
  
I really didn't know why the song effected me so much and reminded me so much of Mason but it did, and I ended up crying myself to sleep that night. Not even the comfort of the cat made me feel much better about myself. Part of me wanted to wake up Colt and talk to him. But instead I sent a quick message to Reggie asking her if she thought I had done the right thing. She told me that I had to stop stressing and that Mason even if he had died would not be upset that I was moving on. But I wasn't really moving on, I was just getting what I needed, and made me feel dirty.  
  
End  
  
End notes; so, yeah, that's it for this part, it's short but I felt it had be written. I lied again I think may have to do one more time jump before the final one. I just keep getting more and more ideas for more and more songs. Don't ask me why keep myself awake seemed to fit for the after sex scene, I couldn't tell 'ya! Hugz and kissez trista aka the dustytiger 


	25. part 25

TITLE: A Day in the Life of a Grim Reaper; Behind the Cloak and Sickle (Part25of30)   
  
AUTHOR: trista   
  
DISCLAIMER: George and the concept is not mine, it belongs to MGM, showcase, Ellen Muth, and the creator of the series, the new characters are mine, but I don't think anyone will be borrowing them.  
  
RATING: PG-13 (for language, but the kids these days…)   
  
CONTENT: Reggie/Millie friendship, Mason/George romance   
  
SUMMARY: Another twenty years in the future, George deals with another loss, as the temp shows her a good time the leads George to some soul searching.  
  
AUTHORS NOTES: Today's featured songs, is from a really great guy, Aaron Saloman, the name of the tune is "ode to a friend" originally done by the band he was in in his younger days, in season. As for the story, this one went a little arey, I hope it works. Damn fate! This is getting more and more depressing as I go on… yeeesh… I'm really excited about finally being able to reveal the end, only a few chappies left folks! Whatever shall you do without this series??? That no more then twenty thing I had in mind is soo out the window sweat drop  
  
Today I got the worst news I think I've ever received, through a mass email. Reggie had died, and her children had decided to send an email to everyone on her contact list. I didn't even read how she died before I could not see the screen for tears. I always knew the day would come, but I hoped that I would be done being a reaper by the time it happened, no such luck, fate simply liked to toy with my emotions.   
  
I heard a light knock on the door, the new temp who had been with us for two weeks was slowly opening the door. She was very in tuned, and I really got along with her. I looked up and she immediately hugged me. I was unable to speak, but was glad to have a female friend be there for me, Colt would never understand the loss I felt about losing Reggie again.  
  
"I had a feeling something was wrong," Katri explained.  
  
"I just found out that my sister died," I whispered.  
  
"Oh! That's not good, not good at all, I couldn't imagine what it would be like to lose my sister for a second time. That's what scared me about doing what you did."  
  
I shrugged. "I never thought about her going before me. I've lost everyone who I used to know when I was really young!"  
  
"I know, I know, I remember what that felt like, and then after all that I was shipped over here to finish my sentence, away from anything familiar."  
  
"At least you know that your sentence is almost done."  
  
We had started to refer to our time as a reaper as a sentence, it really did feel like that. I liked Katri, and was going to be a little sad to see her go, even if I didn't really know her. I wished that she would have been with us longer. She had been a physic when she was alive, and apparently being undead really helps those abilities. We would talk for hours on end, we were like long lost best friends, and I never felt strange talking to her about my problems.   
  
"George?" she asked. "It was her time you know?"   
  
I nodded. "I wish it was mine too."   
  
"Your time will be coming up sooner then you think, and you'll probably upset to be leaving this world behind, even with all the good that lies ahead."  
  
I shook my head. "You have quiet the way with words."  
  
She laughed. "So I've been told. Wished I could have talked my way out of being murdered."  
  
"If you were murdered how did you not end up in this division to start with?"  
  
"Who knows, maybe they were doing the same thing with a temp then too."  
  
I shrugged. "Probably."  
  
"Funny with all the things I could see coming I never could see death coming."  
  
"That would have been an unfair advantage as a reaper."  
  
"I guess you're right. So do you know how your sister died?"  
  
"No, I just got a mass email, I think her age caught up to her."  
  
She nodded. "Ever wish you could age?"  
  
"Yeah, sometimes, I'm kind of sick of being in an eighteen year old's body."  
  
She laughed. "Some people would kill to be eighteen forever."  
  
"It would be great to be eighteen forever if I felt that age."  
  
"Touché!"  
  
We both started to laugh. Somehow no matter how upset I was Katri could make me forget about my problems at least for a little while. I really was going to miss her once she left the group, she was the first temp I actually gave a damn about. I'd mess around with a few of the male ones but it didn't mean anything, it was just a way to get my sex fix. After Luc though, I always made sure that they didn't know Mason.   
  
The house had become communal, and although a part of me liked to always have people around, I really hated losing so much of my privacy after having it for so long. For the most part the temps were good at keeping out of my shit but there were times when they would snoop around, and it pissed me off a lot. After all I was nice enough to offer them a place the least they could do is respect the rules of my home.  
  
Sure enough right in the middle of our conversation we heard Anika and Drew show up. I always wondered if something was going on between the two of them because they always seemed to show up together. If there was they were very good at keeping secrets, because no one was every able to find out for sure. We went downstairs, where Colt was already sitting drinking his coffee. Anika passed around the post-its and we all went on our way. Some days we would have a sort of staff meeting, explaining when a temp was leaving, or anything important that needed to be shared with the group. Anika was a good group leader, but a part of me missed Rube, and I really missed meeting at Der Waffle Haus, even tough it had closed soon after we stopped making it our meeting spot. Funny how things like that happen.  
  
I looked at my post-it, I was so sick of seeing post-its, with a quasi-name written on it, and ETD, and a place I had no choice but to go to in order to collect another fucking soul. I wished sometimes that people would just stop dying, and I could just move on and be with all the people that I loved. It was funny how you could not be bothered by death one moment, and another it was the worst thing in the world. It was not that I cared if J. Longview was going to die today, I'm sure he would be missed, I didn't know the guy. I didn't grieve, it was just my job, but R. Lass being dead was a big deal to me. As someone had once told me "it's only tragedy when it effects you," and nothing could be more true.  
  
As I went to where J. Longview was to meet his maker my mind was on Reggie, and everyone I had ever lost, my mom, Mason, Daisy, Betty, Rube, everyone. I very rarely thought about my dad, but knew that he had died some time ago, I couldn't tell you when, I had stopped caring about him long before he died. I wondered what Reggie had thought about him in her last moments, if she had forgiven him for what he had done, me, I never would. I was technically seventy eight and I still didn't have it my heart to forgive him. I was seventy eight!? No wonder it was Reggie's time! Her kids would look older then me! That depressed me a lot.  
  
I collected the soul of J. Longview who had somehow ended up getting run over by a steam roller. Was it just me or were the gravelings watching too many old cartoons! A steam roller, he actually got in the path of a steam roller. I wasn't really paying attention as to how, I just took his soul, and was glad that I didn't have to deal with helping him to move on. A steam roller, that was a first for me, and it did make me smile. I got back to the house, glad that no one seemed to be there. I went into my room, locked the door and put on the radio, I had been turning to music a lot of late, as a way to help me feel better. Colt telling me about the healing power of music may have helped a lot. But I was glad that I had started to listen to music, somehow it made me feel like I wasn't alone in the world. As I laid there I heard a really nice song.  
  
That was funny, and yet it was sadly depressing  
  
Maybe the two go hand in hand  
  
Words lose their meaning by I still find purpose  
  
If I don't try to understand   
  
Help me to see that not all things are cursed   
  
Help me to see the other side  
  
Happiness beckons but emptiness swallows  
  
All of our aspirations   
  
Now I know that at the time has come to look back on the good times we had  
  
Now that they're gone I remember them better then when they were here  
  
I know it's too late, where did they go?  
  
That was funny, and yet it was sadly depressing  
  
Maybe the two go hand in hand  
  
Words lose their meaning by I still find purpose  
  
If I don't try to understand   
  
Now I know that at the time has come to look back on the good times we had  
  
Now that they're gone I remember them better then when they were here  
  
I know it's too late, where did they go?  
  
Where did they go? where did they go?  
  
Where did they go? where did they go?  
  
It made me think of Reggie, and a poem she had shown me many years ago, around the time that our parents had split up. It made me cry, but it also made me feel a little better. It was a really nice song, and really spoke to me. Petting one of the cats, we now seemed to also take in stray cats, I'm not really sure how it started, but it happened shortly after Colby died. We had about five cats, and the black one that always liked to cuddle with me was my favorite. We called her Melody because she was so loud.  
  
I knesw early on to how to deal with seeing death on a regular basis, it's a totally different story to deal with deaths of people you know, especially when it seems like it was every single person I knew who had died. Sure they had been replaced, if you would, but the group was not the same was when I started, and I missed everyone dearly. I was fine with the whole death thing up until I lost my sister, and that was something I hardly dealt with.   
  
I could not even say goodbye to her, as one I couldn't have gone to London even if I wanted to, but more importantly if I did I could not explain myself once I got there. No one would believe the truth that I was a friend since she lived in North America, and I could not lie about why I wanted to say goodbye to her, so I was forced to do it an ocean away.   
  
I was realizing that I was starting to become that crazy little old lady that spoke to her cats, and kept to herself sane. Although, I didn't look like a little old lady I felt like one. Everyone who looked at me could not guess that I was over twenty five, and getting ID ed for eighty plus years is not a fun thing! Some people say that its flattering but I most certainly would not think that!   
  
I was so frustrated with my life, and since it was an afterlife of sorts I couldn't even do anything about it but home that news would soon come that I would be reaping my last soul. I pet the cat, crying, and ended up falling asleep in the middle of the day.   
  
I was woken up to the sound of knocking at my door, and Katri saying "George are you up?" I always hated when people asked that, because if you answered you were obviously up.  
  
"No!" I replied.  
  
She entered the room. "Oh, good you are, sorry to wake you up."  
  
"Whatever, I shouldn't be sleeping right now anyway."  
  
"Yeah, I guess not, huh? Anyway, guess what!?"  
  
"Chicken butt."  
  
She laughed. "You're so funny! No, no tomorrow's my last day!"  
  
"Good for you," I said way more unenthusiastically then I had intended."I know that you want it to be your last day, but can't you at least pretend to be happy for me."  
  
"I am happy for you, Katri, really I am, it's just that…"  
  
"Today's been a really shitty day?"  
  
"Yeah, I can't stop thinking about everything and everyone that I've lost in my life."  
  
"It's hard isn't it? I've seen so many things in my life, and the hardest things to get over were the loses of family and friends."  
  
I nodded. "I know how you feel."  
  
"Well, I just hope that what I'm thinking is right and I'm going to be able to see them soon, and I hope that you will too."I tried to smile. "I'm trying really hard to be positive, I am but it's just not working."  
  
"You need to get out! We're having a girls night on my last day as a reaper!"  
  
"What?"  
  
Before I knew what was going on she was rummaging through my closet, and throwing clothes at me. She didn't have to tell me, but I went to the bathroom and tried them on. Before long I was in a short blue skirt I had not worn in ages, and she was wearing my favorite little black dress, we were ready for a night on the town. I looked really good, and for the first time in a long time I actually felt like I was under forty, I actually felt like I was eighteen again. I really needed that push out of bed to make me feel human again. The whole night I didn't think of anything or anybody that brought me down, it was amazing! The best part was that I had a lot of young guys hitting on me, and buying me drinks.  
  
After a while I realized that Katri had gone outside with one of the guys, while I had stuck up quiet the conversation with a guy named, Chris, I had started using the name Leena a while back, and only kept the Millie thing for when talking to Reggie.  
  
"So Leena, how old are you?" asked Chris.  
  
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," I told him, smiling.  
  
He laughed. "All right I'll just assume you're just twenty-one. Which means you're only five years younger then me."  
  
I smiled, if only he knew the truth! Whatever, I was having a good time, and for the first time since I became a reaper I felt like I was alive again. Even when I was with Mason I didn't really feel like I was alive, I felt like I was living again, but it's hard to feel alive with another person who is undead. We ended up bring the guys home with us, and we were both glad that Colt seemed to be out for the evening.  
  
It was funny before that night I had only had sex with reapers, and it was very different somehow with someone who's still alive. Maybe it was because the reapers knew that they were going to be moving on, or maybe the undead just didn't have any sort of zest for life. I'm not saying Chris was better then Mason but he was the best casual sex I've ever had, and I was glad that Katri had dragged me out of the house. It temporarily made me forget about my problems.  
  
I felt a little ashamed but before he went I gave him a fake number, I'm sure he was a nice guy, but I only wanted one thing that night, and I got it. I knew that the guy Katri was with had already left, so I went downstairs.   
  
"Thank you for dragging me out," I said.  
  
"No problem! I can't believe you don't do that more often! I mean reapers are fun to play with but there's so much more risk involved."  
  
"I don't usually have anyone to go out to the bars with."  
  
She shrugged. "Well that shouldn't stop you from having a good time."  
  
"I don't do this that often you know, just when I really need it."  
  
She nodded. "I just like sex, and lots of it. I thought you were the same way."  
  
"Not exactly."  
  
"Whatever, so did you give him your number?"  
  
"I gave him a fake one?"  
  
"No why would you go and do something silly like that he's pretty hot, and he has stamina he's a definite keeper."  
  
"I'm not looking for anything long term."  
  
"How said anything about long term? I meant keep him around when you're need of a fix. So was he any good?"  
  
I blushed. "I don't usually talk about things like that."  
  
She shrugged. "You mean you never spoke to anyone the entire time you were with that Mason guy?"  
  
"Sometimes I'd talk to Daisy, but for the most part no, it seems kind of personal to be telling the whole world."  
  
"You're not telling the whole world just the people you trust."  
  
"Whatever. Katri, look I just don't wanna talk about it, all right. I had a good night, let's not ruin it by getting into a fight."  
  
"All right whatever you want. I wonder who wore the pants in your relationship."  
  
"Hey!"  
  
"Come on George, lighten up, it's a good thing."  
  
I shrugged. "It's been a long night, I'm going to bed."  
  
"Want some company?"  
  
I did a double take. "Excuse me?"  
  
"Don't tell me you've never wanted to sleep with a girl!"  
  
"Katri, look, just stay on the couch."  
  
"I didn't mean to freak you out. I just thought-"  
  
"Do me a favor and stop thinking all right? You know what happens when you assume."  
  
I went upstairs and wondered if it was the alcohol that made Katri act the way she was, or if she was just a damn good actress, who had fooled me into thinking she was a person I actually wanted to be friends with. I had had a really good night, and wished that the last bit of it could be erased. Strangely a part of me also regretted not giving Chris my number. I heard the door open, and assumed it was Colt, I put on my bathrobe and went downstairs.  
  
"You're home late," I whispered.  
  
"Bad day at the office," he said with a sigh.  
  
"Care to talk about it?"  
  
"Yeah, come on downstairs, don't mind the mess."  
  
"Colt I don't think your room has been clean since the day you moved in."  
  
He shrugged. "Why is it that some people just can't get it through their heads?"  
  
"Get what through their heads?"  
  
"That I don't know all the answers. I try to do my job, and I don't know what happens after this stage! I wish people would just stop asking me things I just can't answer! I wish I knew what was lying ahead for everyone. I wish I knew that there was something good waiting around the bend, but I don't! All I know is that they should feel fucking lucky that they're not stuck being a grim reaper!"  
  
"Don't I know it."  
  
"What did you do tonight?"  
  
"Had a girls night with Katri, it's her last day."  
  
"Lucky slut!"  
  
I looked at him. "That was uncalled for."  
  
"She is a slut you know, and don't turn into one like she is."  
  
"What?"  
  
"I can see her spinning her web on you, she's a slut, and she wants you to be one too."  
  
I looked at my fingers. "Look I have certain needs you know?"  
  
"I know, but don't go after everything you see."  
  
"How would you know she does?"  
  
"For one thing she hit on me, for another she hit on Drew, who was even less impressed. I'm pretty sure she hits on women too. I'm sure you to get along when it comes to a lot of things, but don't let what she tells you change the way you act." "Colt you worry too much."  
  
"As much as I love talking to you, I've had a rough day, and need to get some sleep." I nodded. "I should do that too, but I have so much on my mind."  
  
"I'm sorry about Reggie, I know she meant a lot to you."  
  
I nodded, leaving the room. Just when I thought that my world could not fall apart anymore then it already had, it did. Fate had kicked me in the ass again, and had dangled what I thought was a friend in front of me just long enough to see that she was nothing but a fake, and I lost my sister. Everyone from my old life was gone, and I wondered how I was going to deal with it. I knew why the living turned to suicide, an option I wished I had.  
  
End   
  
End note: uh, I think that one went off on a tangent, and I also think that I need to touch on a few issues brought up b4 going for the final time jump… 


	26. part 26

TITLE: A Day in the Life of a Grim Reaper; Behind the Cloak and Sickle (Part 26of30)   
  
AUTHOR: trista   
  
DISCLAIMER: George and the concept is not mine, it belongs to MGM, showcase, Ellen Muth, and the creator of the series, the new characters are mine, but I don't think anyone will be borrowing them.  
  
RATING: PG-13 (for language, but the kids these days…)   
  
CONTENT: Reggie/Millie friendship, Mason/George romance   
  
SUMMARY: George has found the volunteer work helps her to stress down, what happens when her volunteering and work collide?  
  
AUTHORS NOTES: The song that inspired this fic is going to be appearing in the next one. Sorry for the delay but I had part 26 all written, then I had to write the next two parts which made the original part 26 number 28, and so there was a delay cause I had to write the new part 26 hehe… as you can see I've put in that this is part 26 of 30 which means this is getting to the end folks! Hoping to have the writing for the last few done by today, will be posting them one a day after that… then it's all over.   
  
Thanx to emmylou for intrest in posting this elsewhere, please email me back!   
  
Still waiting for emails regarding the CD I pretty much have to songs picked out, and the price will be two dollars ur currency (unless of course you've got pesos or rubles laugh) . Email me at rockchicktristasympatico.ca please and thank you.  
  
After the whole thing with Katri I decided to stop getting at all close to any of the new reapers. They could crash on my couch if they needed a place, but I didn't have much contact with them. To help me to fill up my time I decided to start volunteering at a local kids shelter. I had never much liked kids but since I had been undead for so long they started to interest me, call it a fucked up maternal clock or something, but I wanted to spend time with kids. Since I didn't want any of the little hooligans I decided it would be better to help those already on this planet.  
  
For a few months I had been working with a child named Jacob, he was amazing, smart, and I wished he was my kid. If I had had kids I would have wanted one just like him. The only reason he was at the center was that he was in a wheelchair and his parents wanted him to get socialization that wasn't from jaded school kids. All the kids at the center got along very well with him. He even helped some of the younger kids with their homework when all of the adults were busy during quiet time.  
  
The routine at the place where I volunteered was really simple, in the afternoon we always had an hour of quiet time where the kids would just read, or do homework. Mostly because some of the kids didn't have anywhere quiet to do things like that, and they had requested it. To make it fair all the kids had to have that time. Plus they had a lot of resources and the parents who were involved with their kids said that they noticed improvements in their kid's grades. Not everyone has the money to pay for tutors, so the volunteers did what they could for each child.  
  
For the most part though we played games with the kids, outdoor and indoor games, and everyone just had a lot of fun. It was an escape from a hard home life for most of them, and they were glad for it. Jacob loved being there, and he could beat most of the kids at any kind of board game. Jacob and I got along really well, and found out that he was one of the only kids that I worked with who had two parents in the picture.   
  
I walked in and I got a huge hug from Jacob. "I missed you Leena Beena!"  
  
I hugged him back. "I missed you to, Jacob-two-two!"  
  
He smiled at me. "Why haven't you been here the last few days?"  
  
"I've been out of town, I told you that."  
  
"I know, I just missed you is all. It's not the same around here without you."  
  
I smiled, I was glad to have someone who cared about me in my life again. He was a great kid. The real reason I wasn't around was that there was a huge accident a few days earlier and we all had to work overtime in order to get the backlog of souls through. My house had not only become reaper central at that time it was also lost soul central it was loads of fun, and I had never thought I'd be so glad to see this place.  
  
"I'm not here for long today," Jacob told me.  
  
"Why not?" I asked concerned.   
  
"It's not a big deal! My parents are letting me go to my best friend's house all by myself!" I had never seen his eyes light up so bright.  
  
"Really!?! That's great."  
  
"He only lives two blocks from here, but I'm still so excited about it!"  
  
I was excited for him too. I was glad that his parents let him be independent, because there were other kids there who had the same problem as he did and wouldn't even let them out of their site. Jacob and I played a few games, and did his homework before he had to go. I left a little bit after that, the place was dead, and most of the other kids I would work with weren't around. As I was leaving the center I noticed Anika walking up the street. I could tell she had more work for me.  
  
"What's wrong?" I asked her.  
  
"It's only one assignment I promise, they couldn't send it anywhere else," she explained.  
  
"All right, whatever." She handed me the post-it. "I can't do this one!"  
  
"Death is non-transferable, you know that."  
  
"Anika, I don't know if I can do it!"  
  
She looked at me. "Calm down George, if you don't think you can do it just think of the alternative."  
  
I remembered a few years back we had come across a soul that had been left in a child. The adult who was in the ripe old age of ninety had no quality of life, but still complained about everything her nursing staff had tried to help her with. The reaper who was supposed to have taken her soul was a temp, and would have been free over eighty years earlier had she taken the child's soul. Now through sheer luck she was in accident division when the old woman had gotten into an accident. She had fallen off a lift in a home that was being used improperly, and finally died, years after she really should have. I simply could not do that to this soul. Jacob was just too good for that, and I simply could not see him be rotten.   
  
So I stood at the street corner right near Jacob's friend's house, and I waited for him. When I saw him I walked by, gave him a hug, and told him I'd see him the next day, knowing I was lying. As much as I didn't want to know, I didn't want to not know. He started out into the street as a drunk drive came around the corner. He made it half way across the street, and unable to get out of the way of the speeding car he was struck. I had to continue walking, but it was hard because my eyes had filled up with tears.  
  
I had taken souls of kids before, I had seen horrific accidents where they were involved, but since I knew Jacob it was the hardest thing I ever had to see. I could hardly believe that it had really happened, and I kept the post-it in my hand, so that I wouldn't think that it was all just some horrible dream.  
  
I didn't end up at home like I had planned, I went to the same club that Katri had taken me to her last night as a reaper. I wished it had been my last night, then I wouldn't have had to reap the soul of the best kid I knew. I was glad that his soul hadn't stuck around after the accident. I noticed of the corner of my eye him walking toward I can only guess what it was. The fact that he was on his own two feet was probably paradise enough for him. I was happy that in death he got the one thing he wanted and could never have in life, but I would still miss the kid, and I'm sure that I was one of many.  
  
I had never believed the saying that only the good die young until I became a reaper. Especially since I had died young and was certainly not good, and ended up being a reaper for sixty years and counting. But I had met a lot of good young souls, and I had met a lot of foul old ones, so I believed it. I always wondered if it was a reaper who had coined that phrase.  
  
I was sitting at the bar, drinking a beer. "What's a sexy gal like you doing drinking all alone?" asked a guy as he sat down next to me.  
  
"None of your fucking business!" I snapped, I recognized him and hoped he hadn't recognized me.  
  
"Leena! I've been trying to get a hold of you, when I called the number you gave me it was out of service!" he exclaimed.  
  
"Oh, hi, Chris. Yeah, I must have given you our old number or something, I'm sorry about that, my roommates and I move around a rather lot. I can never keep the numbers straight!"  
  
The bartender was wiping up a spill in front of us, eyed me knowingly and shook her head when she realized that he was not getting the hint. We'd probably have a good laugh about it later, women always had intuition about those kinds of things.  
  
"So, could I get the new number?" he asked, hopefully.  
  
"I don't really know it right now," I admitted sheepishly. "How about you give me your number and I'll call you."  
  
He shrugged. "I guess that'll work." He handed me a business card.  
  
I was ashamed of myself for sleeping with a guy who gave business cards to women he picked up in bars. I smiled, and took the card. I would have died right there if he had put "Dr. Love" on the card anywhere, but he hadn't.  
  
"Look, I know this sounds bad, but I really just came here to have a couple of drinks, alone, tonight," I told him.  
  
"I understand, you're going through some rough times?"  
  
"Something like that."  
  
He pulled his barstool closer to mine. "You didn't have a boyfriend when we had sex did you, and now you don't know what you want to do about him?"  
  
"No, nothing like that."  
  
"Oh, good, cause I just couldn't live with myself if I had made love to a girl who was in love with another man."  
  
If only the poor bastard knew. "It's nothing like, and I don't really want to discuss it with you."  
  
He looked at me, dejected. "All right, whatever, you will call me though right?"  
  
"Yup."I shook my head, he just couldn't take the hint that I was not interested in him! He was sexy as hell, but dumb as a brush. I put the card in my pocket, finished my beer and left. I decided not to go back to that bar in case I ran into him again. I went home, and asked Colt to go with me to a different bar. I needed more alcohol and the three beer I had already was not helping much. He brought me to a much louder club, where there was a live band playing.   
  
I didn't give rat's ass about the band, the atmosphere, or the noise, I wanted to get drunk, and if I didn't have to talk to anyone while I was doing it, so much the better. I had five more beer at that club, and I was completely drunk, and I was damn happy about it. The bands had finished, and the place had gotten quiet when Colt joined me again.  
  
"Hey, are you drunk?" he asked me.  
  
"You tell me, hansom," I giggled.  
  
"Yeah, you're drunk."  
  
I smiled at him. "Well at least I'm smiling', right?"  
  
"Yeah, I guess so, well how about we take you home?"  
  
"But I want more of the yummy beer!"  
  
"You don't need anymore."  
  
I laughed. "I'm fine!" I tried to stand up and walk, but couldn't. "I seem to have lost my feet. Could you help me find 'em so I can go over to the bar and get another beer?"  
  
"Not on your life sister!"  
  
"You're not my brother!" I started giggling.  
  
"Time to go home, George."  
  
I pouted. "Fine, fine, I knew you weren't my brother. You're my other mother!!"  
  
He put his arm under me to help me balance and he helped me out of the bar. He went to call a cab.  
  
"I wouldn't do that if I was you!" I giggled.   
  
"And why not? We need to get home."  
  
"Georgie goes blaa, in cars when she drinks! I don't think mister cab guy will be too happy if I did that!"  
  
He shook his head, and helped me walk home. It wasn't a very long walk, but it ended up being a lot longer with my being so drunk. I just babbled incoherently about everything, but nothing that matter the whole way home. Colt had a lot of patience for me, which kind of surprised me because I was pissing myself off! I earned a lot more respect for him because of what he did for me that night.   
  
It was a damn good thing we didn't keep alcohol in the house or he would have been up even longer guarding me against it. He brought me to my room and slept for a little while, but got up and went down to his room. I crawled into his bed.  
  
"Colt," I whined, "are you sleeping?"  
  
"Yes," he responded.  
  
"You're confusing me! You can't answer my question if you are! Stop that!"   
  
He grumbled, "what would you like?"  
  
I shrugged. "Just need to talk, now that I'm a little less inebriated."  
  
"All right, first question, why did you get so drunk?"  
  
"To forget that I had to reap Jacob's soul today."  
  
"You mean your little friend Jacob?"  
  
"No, Jacob from the bible! Yes, that one."  
  
"Well that explains your state on the way home."  
  
"I apologize about that."  
  
He shrugged. "What are friends for, now you wanted to talk?"  
  
I learned why some people called alcohol truth serum that night. We talked for a hours about things I had never told anyone before. He just listened to me, all night, I was glad that I had friend like him, I don't know what I'd do if I lost him too, he was the only thing I had left in this world.  
  
"Did you mean what you said about Katri?" I asked.  
  
"I don't remember what I said, I was drinking that night, I tend to be a jerk."  
  
"That you thought she had pulled me into a web."  
  
"A little bit, you changed when she was around, and I didn't like that."  
  
"Changed?"  
  
"You didn't spend as much time with me."  
  
I shrugged. "I guess it's just different when girls are friends. I didn't mean to alienate you, or anything. I was just glad that I had someone of the same sex to talk to. Don't get me wrong, you're a great person, it's just that sometimes I need girl talk, and Anika just isn't good at it."  
  
He laughed. "I'm sorry if I made you crazy with whatever it was I said. I'm sure she was nice, strange, but nice."  
  
"It's all in the past now, I guess."  
  
"Yeah, so did what did you do when Anika gave you your friend's post-it?"  
  
"I wanted to pound her into the ground! Fuck! But then I remembered I probably shouldn't shoot the messenger, and I was just kind of angry at nothing. I wanted to do something, but I couldn't, if I didn't take the soul he wouldn't be the same person, and I didn't have enough time to try and change anything around so that the accident wouldn't happen."  
  
"You can do that?"  
  
"Yeah, I've done it before, and the consequences were not good, but I think that the powers that be knew I'd be up to something and that was why I got the post it so late in the day."  
  
"So you can change someone's fate?"  
  
"Yeah, but I wouldn't advise it. I tired everything when I first started, and trust me the consequences far out weigh the good feeling you get. Often if you save one person you end up killing many, many more. Plus I'm trying not to piss of fate so they won't make my sentence even longer."  
  
He laughed. "I think we all want this whole thing over with as soon as we possibly can."  
  
I nodded. "I'd have to agree with that statement. I just wish I knew why it was that I happened to get his post-it. I mean, you'd think that they'd try to avoid personal things like that."  
  
"Yeah, I know what you mean. Or that there'd be a whole division for kids."  
  
"That would be totally cruel to the people who had to work that division."  
  
"I never really thought about that before."  
  
"I did when I first became a reaper, my first soul was child, and I wondered if all mine would be and how I would handle that. So I was kind of glad when I found out that the kids that come along are no different then adults."  
  
"That makes sense."  
  
"Hey, it's getting kind of late, and I'm guessing I'm going to be going to a funeral, and will be needing to talk to you, so how about we continue this tomorrow?"  
  
He nodded. Really I would have loved to have stayed and talked with him, but I needed some alone time to cry before I had to go and deal with all the stuff the next day. I was going to go to the funeral, and even though I had been to many before, I knew that this one was going to be hard to deal with. Even harder then my own, since people would be able to see me at that one.  
  
End  
  
End notes: tear poor George, in the next one I shall be putting in the song that inspired this story, I've been wanting to write it into something since I heard it, and with this fic it seemed to work. If the song doesn't make you a little sad then you're heartless… you'll see what I mean… hugz and kissez trista aka the dustytiger 


	27. part 27

TITLE: A Day in the Life of a Grim Reaper; Behind the Cloak and Sickle (Part 27of30)   
  
AUTHOR: trista   
  
DISCLAIMER: George and the concept is not mine, it belongs to MGM, showcase, Ellen Muth, and the creator of the series, the new characters are mine, but I don't think anyone will be borrowing them.  
  
RATING: PG-13 (for language, but the kids these days…)   
  
CONTENT: Reggie/Millie friendship, Mason/George romance   
  
SUMMARY: George deals with aftermath of having to reap a friend.  
  
AUTHORS NOTES: no emails about the cd yet, I know a couple of you said you were interested… so this is part 27, I can't believe I've written so much!! This is the conclusion of the last one, and if you needed ur Kleenex b4 you'll need it more now! The featured song, and inspiration for these last two part is called "Jacob's eyes" by an amazing Ottawa band called Wishpocket. As I said b4 I've wanted to do something with song for a while, and am glad that I was able to use it.  
  
In other news I've just been laid off and in a couple of weeks I may be wanting to start a new series, I'm thinking something with a darker G&M relationship, with a stronger rating, if anyone thinks it's a good idea please tell me… and now the moment you've all been waiting for… drum-role please!! The fic!!!!! kermit the frog style YAAAYYY!!!!"  
  
Everyone showed up at the house that morning, and sat down around the kitchen table. It was strange how routine everything was, even when someone new arrived. We all sat at the same places, and the only thing that ever changed was one face, and the off topic conversations. I wanted Anika to give me my damn post-it and let me go. I wanted to see how much of Jacob's wake I'd be able to go to. I couldn't not go, but I didn't want to show up and then leave, then come back.  
  
"First order of business," Anika said.   
  
Peachy, I thought, she's decided to have a quasi staff meeting. Just my rotten fucking luck! I wanted to be anywhere but there. I didn't want to hear Anika go on about things, that we probably should know, but didn't really care about either way.  
  
She cleared her throat, realizing no one was listening. "First up, George you have the day off, since you had to take a soul on the day off, you get to have a real day off today. And I'm sorry about your little friend, but I'm only told who assign names to, I don't decide who gets 'em."  
  
I nodded. "Well, I guess that's good news then."  
  
"It is, and if you go to the wake I'd like you take another reaper along, just in case someone saw you yesterday."  
  
"Whatever, who's free?"  
  
"Colt's isn't till the evening, so I guess you two can go."  
  
"Can I go now?"  
  
"There's still more we need to cover."  
  
I sighed, leaned back in my chair, and listened to her, even though I had heard it all before. Don't get me wrong, I liked Anika she was a good reaper, and a good friend, but as a team leader she went a little overboard. She liked to once a week remind us what we had to do. She seemed to forget that I had been a reaper longer then her, and I had even helped her out a little at first. It didn't matter how long the reaper had been around she insisted upon telling them the same thing. About how to look for danger areas, and how to look inconspicuous.   
  
After that was over Colt and I went over to the funeral home. When I got there, Colt was my brick, and I was glad that he was there. I only stayed a few hours before I couldn't bare it anymore. It was a nice enough place and all, it was just so hard to deal with seeing Jacob in that box. I was also having trouble dealing with his mother who was a complete wreck. When we walked in there was another mother from the center talking to her, and everyone heard the whole thing.  
  
"What were you thinking?" asked the first mother, Veronica.  
  
"I was thinking I was going to give my son a bit of a normal life. He was more then old enough to go to his friend's houses alone," Jacob's mother, Lisa responded.  
  
"He wasn't a normal child!"  
  
"He wasn't stupid either!"  
  
I knew Veronica she didn't let her son do anything, I was surprised he was even allowed to go to the center at all. She treated him like he was a small child and he was older then Jacob was. I wanted to say something, but knew it wasn't my place. Lisa simply walked away rather then explain her position on the matter. I went over to her, and hugged her.  
  
"Hey, don't let her bother you," I told her.  
  
She nodded. "It just hurts, she thinks that it was because I let him live that he died."  
  
"She doesn't know what she's talking about. It was not because of what you did or said that it happened, it was because some dumbfuck decided the he was going to drive drunk."  
  
"I know, but it's so hard."  
  
"I can understand, I remember what my mother went through when she lost my sister. It was so hard on her. She blamed herself for what happened because she had forced her to go to work that morning."  
  
"How did she get over it?"  
  
"I think she realized that the action she took was the best for her, and that despite the outcome she was a good parent for sending her to work. Just as you are a good parent because you let your son go and do something that he's seen so many other children his age do."  
  
Tears were rolling down her face. "I don't know what I'm going to do without him."  
  
"It's going to be hard for a while, but you have a good husband, and great friends who will support you through the hard times."  
  
"Have you ever lost anyone that was important to you?"  
  
"I'm only twenty five, but I've lost a few people that meant a lot to me. Including the guy I thought I was going to marry."  
  
She nodded. "Parents aren't supposed to bury their children."  
  
I nodded. "But only the good die young, and he was a damn good kid. Had I had kids with my fiancé I would have wanted one just like Jacob."  
  
"Only one that could walk."  
  
"His disability shaped that child, he would not be the amazing young man he was had it not been for the way you treated him."  
  
"Thank you, I needed hear that."  
  
I nodded. "Look, I hate to leave, but this is just so hard. I'll see you at the funeral."  
  
"Thank you for coming Leena."  
  
"I couldn't not say goodbye to him."  
  
"One last thing, will you be continuing your work at the center?"  
  
"Probably not, I don't think I can go in there and not see him."  
  
She started to cry again. I hugged her, and a few minutes later her husband had come back, and she turned to him for the shoulder to cry on. The whole time while I was at the wake I did not cry. Later even at the funeral I did not shed any tears, but as soon as I got home, and began talking to Colt the tears began to flow, a lot. We were in my room talking, glad that the temp didn't live there, and that Anika probably wouldn't be around till the next morning.  
  
"So how are you holding up?" he asked me.  
  
"This is hard, I feel like I enabled the whole thing," I responded.  
  
"Could you live with the alternative?"  
  
I shrugged. "Probably not, I just wish that…"  
  
"You hadn't got his post-it."  
  
I nodded. "Why does fate have to be so cruel! Not only was he a kid I knew him! He was a good kid that could have done so much good in the world!"  
  
"I don't know why fate is like that, maybe it's to make you really ready for whatever is ahead for you."  
  
"The way fate likes to fuck with me I'll be a reaper for fucking ever!"  
  
"You didn't do anything to deserve that."  
  
I shrugged. "Whatever."  
  
"It's that mouth of yours that's gotten you into trouble."  
  
I smiled. "Well.."  
  
"I made you smile anyway."  
  
"I hate to do this to you but my appointment is soon, I'll be back and we'll continue this."  
  
I nodded, and curled in my bed, in hopes of having a nap, as I had not slept well the night before. Unfortunately sleep would not come, and ended up lying in bed staring at my ceiling thinking about what I could have done to save Jacob. I was also trying to find a way of getting out being a reaper without being punished. I wanted to be reunited with everyone I had lost along the way. What I wanted most of all was for Mason to be around to hold me. Somehow no matter how bad things got I felt that everything was going to be fine when Mason held me. I could even forget for a little while that there was something bad going on in my life, of course that took a lot more then him holding me.  
  
I missed being able to talk to him before and after we had sex. I missed everything about him, and there was nothing I could do about it. It somehow whenever it lost someone the grief would always come back about Mason. I never really got over the pain of losing and thought I never would. He was the first person I loved. I only realized after they died that I did love my parents, and that was why it hurt so much to lose them twice. I loved Colt in a very different way, but he could not make me feel exactly the same as Mason had. I was glad that I at least had someone who would listen to me when I needed help. Everyone thinks that a girl and guy can't be just friends, Colt and I proved them wrong. I wanted nothing more from him then friendship.   
  
My mind had wondered back to Jacob, laying there, looking asleep in his child sized coffin, it was so small, and I wanted nothing more then for him to open his eyes, and ask why all those people were around. But I knew that could not happen. I knew that I had taken his soul, and there was nothing that I could do to put it back in there, and even that would not bring him back to life! I heard the door open, and expected Colt to come up immediately, but it took him a few moments, when he got upstairs he was holding his guitar. I looked him curiously, wondering what he would need that for.  
  
"I wrote a song in my head while I was waiting to reap the soul. I'm gonna play it for you," he informed me.  
  
"I hope it sounds good out of your head as it does in it," I responded.  
  
He laughed. "It usually sounds better once I get it out."  
  
So he played me a song he had written, changing a few things around the first time, and then singing it entirely through the next. It was all about the day that we had just passed.   
  
It was different from before when we'd go to see a box  
  
I could tell that he was hurt by I'd never seen a drop  
  
And it's not like he was the toughest guy in the world alive  
  
He was doing just fine until they closed Jacob's eyes  
  
Looking down the road, making a river flow  
  
Looked into his eyes  
  
First time I'd ever seen a man's eyes cry  
  
This time when we got there the box was half the size  
  
The population had doubled for his twelve years of life  
  
The sky was heavier then the heaviest ever sky  
  
We were all doing just fine till they closed Jacob's eyes  
  
Looking down the road, making a river flow  
  
Looked into his eyes  
  
First time I'd ever seen a man's eyes cry  
  
Why'd you have to take him? he was just a kid!  
  
Why'd you have to take him? he was just a kid!  
  
It was different from before when we'd go to see a box  
  
I could tell that he was hurt by I'd never seen a drop  
  
This time when we got there the box was half the size  
  
The population had doubled for his twelve years of life  
  
Looking down the road, making a river flow  
  
Looked into his eyes  
  
First time I'd ever seen a man's eyes cry  
  
Looking down the road, making a river flow  
  
Looked into his eyes  
  
First time I'd ever seen a man's eyes cry  
  
I cried after he played it for me. But I was glad that he had, and after that whenever I needed to stop thinking about Jacob I would ask Colt to play me that song, and it got all of the emotions that I felt about loosing him out of me. Somehow the song had so much power, and I was glad that he had shared it with me, because Colt didn't ever let anyone hear a lot of his music.  
  
"The guy I'm talking about is Jacob's dad," he explained. "I have never seen a grown man so grief stricken. I understand why, but most men try to hide their real feelings about things that happened. I was glad to see that he was brave enough to show everyone what he felt."  
  
"I understand," I replied. "Do you see me as weak for not crying at the wake?"  
  
"No, George, you are the type of person who simply keeps her cool at those kinds of things because you've been to so many. I know that you are grieving for him, but you like to grieve in private. Plus he wasn't your kid. There's something else on your mind."  
  
"It's just that whenever I loose anyone it makes me think of how I felt when I lost Mason, and reminds me that I'm not really over it."  
  
"I don't think you ever will, he was the first guy you ever loved, that's something you never really heal from."  
  
I nodded. "I just wish… I just wish that I could remember everything. I remember a lot, but there are holes in so much of the stuff now!"  
  
"That would happen even if he was here."  
  
"I know, but…"  
  
"But?" he prompted.  
  
"I don't want to forget anything about him, because then I might forget how much I love him."  
  
"Your heart doesn't forget, only your mind does."  
  
Colt was a really smart guy, and I was glad to have him to talk to. "As much as I love talking to you, and having you around, Anika has been showing up here pretty early, and I've hardly slept, so I think I wanna just try and get some sleep."  
  
He hugged me and went to bed. I fell asleep a few hours later, my thoughts and dreams filled with both Jacob and Mason. I really wondered how much longer I could deal with losing people, and if I would ever be able to open my heart again even for friendship. I had Colt, who else did I need?  
  
End  
  
End notes: so I really am making the next time jump… part 28 is almost done…. Three more to go… can you believe it?????? Hugz and kissez trista aka the dustytiger 


	28. part 28

TITLE: A Day in the Life of a Grim Reaper; Behind the Cloak and Sickle (Part 28of30)   
  
AUTHOR: trista   
  
DISCLAIMER: George and the concept is not mine, it belongs to MGM, showcase, Ellen Muth, and the creator of the series, the new characters are mine, but I don't think anyone will be borrowing them.  
  
RATING: PG-13 (for language, but the kids these days…)   
  
CONTENT: Reggie/Millie friendship, Mason/George romance   
  
SUMMARY: George finds out Happy Time is still around, and gets some shocking news!  
  
AUTHORS NOTES: it's nearing the end kiddies. Today's song is brought to you by one of my fave bands, used already, called Keep Yourself Good Company, and is called "don't forget" the haunting song seems perfect for this night, I hope you think it works too! I've been waiting a little while to post it, glad I finally could!! Please, please tell me that I have not put all these songs in in vain, email me if you want a CD!! (rockchicktristasympatico.ca)   
  
I was so angry, so sick of being a reaper, a hundred years was long enough! Cruel fucking fate really had something against me. After my appointment that day just happened to walk past the old Happy Time building, surprised to see that it was still Happy Time! I picked up a rock, wanting to throw a rock at the place. It was the place that had caused me to be a grim reaper for a hundred years! If I hadn't gone to work at that god-forsaken place, if they had remembered my lunch I would have lead a normal life!  
  
Well as normal a life as one can life in the Lass household. As I stood, holding my rock, thinking of my life, my real life, the eighteen year one, I realized that it wasn't really all that bad, I was just a mellow drama queen! Honestly, my life wasn't bad at all, my parents didn't do anything bad to me, I rebelled against them for loving me! What an idiot I was! I could hardly believe now that I had done that. All I wanted anymore was to tell them how sorry I was, just to see them again.   
  
I wasn't sure if I had the choice if I would give up my life as a reaper because, to be honest I don't think I would have learned this lesson any other way. Not to mention I wouldn't want to know what life would have been like without the love of my (after)life, Mason. He really did open my eyes to a lot of things when we were together, and when he moved on. I didn't think that I was capable of loving anyone but myself until I started to see Mason. I didn't know much about myself until I met him, and I learned even more after I lost him.  
  
I looked at the rock in my hand again, and put it down. I fully intended to just walk away from that building, and never looked back, but I found myself inexplicably drawn in. As soon as I went in, I realized other then being modernized with the times, the place hadn't changed much. Even Crystal's desk was the same as I had remembered it, other then instead of rather large mean looking lady sitting there, there was a skinny little man. Again, I didn't know what made me go where I went but ended up in the line to apply for a job.   
  
"Hi," said, a chipper thirty year old woman. "I'm Darlie, how can I help you?"  
  
"Hi, Darlie, I'm Sasha, I'm looking for a job, and I have a little problem."  
  
"What might that be?"  
  
"I don't really have a resume or anything."  
  
"That's not a problem at all! Just fill this out and hand it back to me, all right?"  
  
I nodded and she handed me a piece of paper. Why was I back here? Why was I applying for a day job? Maybe it had something to do with needing to get out my house for more then just appointments. My house had a revolving door, and I even had to resort to having to lock up anything I didn't want anyone else to see. Yes, some of the temps would go through my shit! I caught one of them with necklace that Mason gave me! It wasn't worth much, really, but it meant a lot to me because it was the first gift he had given me. I was furious, and for a while temps weren't even allowed in the house. Then Colt and I decided that it would be a good idea to just lock our shit up, and let the house be back to the way he was. He liked the chaos, and I just went with it.   
  
So to escape the craziness of my house, here I was getting a day job I didn't need, and didn't really want. I filled out the sheet, lying about most of the information. Saying I had heard about the place from Millie. I handed Darlie the sheet of paper and went to walk away.  
  
"Just a minute Sasha, would you be able to come back for an interview this afternoon, say at two?" she asked.  
  
"I think so, that's awfully quick!"  
  
"Here at Happy Time we don't see the point of having to make people wait to see if they are able to get a job, so we make sure that all applicants are seen as soon as we can fit them in," smiled another woman. "Now, Darlie, why did you send this young lady elsewhere without even buzzing me?"  
  
"I'm sorry, I thought you said you'd be busy all morning."  
  
"I did say that, but as luck would have it I was done early! Please, always buzz me when someone comes in to apply from now on, all right."  
  
Darlie nodded, and handed her the sheet of paper. She looked over it, and looked at me. "All right Sasha, if you'll come with me." I followed her into what used to be Delores' office.   
  
"Hi, I'm Deena Herbig as in-" she went to say.  
  
"Her big brown eyes?" I finished.  
  
"Blue, for me, but you must have known a brown eyed Herbig!"  
  
"I don't know her personally, my Aunt Millie knew Delores she used to work here."  
  
"It's a shame you never knew Delores, although I guess you're probably too young to have known her, she died a number of years ago."  
  
I nodded. "Yeah, my aunt died not long ago, but I remember her having fond memories of working here so when I was a in a pinch for a job I crossed my fingers and hoped it was still around."  
  
She then proceeded to interview me, big surprise just like in the past they were always looking for people, and I was hired, to start the next day. I forgot how much it hurt to smile so much! It was funny had I not died I probably would have made fun of the place with my kids or nieces around the kitchen table, but if Millie had been a real person she probably would have talked somewhat highly of the place.   
  
I was actually kind of glad to have a day job again, and maybe that was what was making me feel so miserable of late, that I didn't seem to be doing anything but taking souls, and dealing with people who were taking souls. A bunch of which were only around for a few weeks before they were allowed to cross on. Sure Anika, Drew, and Colt were still around, but a big part of me resented the temps for being able to move on. I knew that they had been around for a while, but since I had only seen them for a short time I felt like they had only been there for a little while, and I felt like I should be moving along before them.  
  
I didn't have anyone left anymore except for Colt. Anika and I got along really well, but would hardly call us friends, step sisters or something maybe, but friends certainly not. Drew, for his part really only ever did anything with Anika, and it was funny that they never really told anyone weather or not they were more then just friends.  
  
I left the happy time building looking at a lot of things. I had been there so many times when I first became a reaper, and I realized that for the most part not a lot had changed. Sure the names on the signs had changed, but nothing else had. People were essentially the same as they had been, even if they wore different clothes. Most of them were ignorant, or in a hurry. Very few were nice, and just going with the flow as I had decided to be. A lot of them were pretty stupid, and even without looking for risks, I still did it and noticed how many things people did in a day to put them in danger.  
  
Going back to happy time reminded me of the first few times I was there, when I was still alive. I had hated my mother for making me go there and look for a job. I was even more angry when she made me go back and actually do the job. All she was doing was trying to make me grow up. She had bee right I couldn't just live with her forever, I had to do something with my life, no matter how much I thought it sucked and didn't want to do it. I was so stupid not to have realized anything I had in my life.  
  
My mother spoiled me rotten. She had paid for my one semester of college that I hated going to, and only did because, well I don't know why I did it. I think my mother knew that I'd never stick with it, but she still paid for it. All she ever did was love me, and all I ever did was hate her! Why was I so stupid! Maybe you're like that when you're young, but I've met a lot of people that were my age, and they weren't like that. They had their issues with their parents, but usually they had damn good reasons to have issues.   
  
I had met people whose parents had abused them, abandoned them, hurt them in ways I could only imagine, and hated their parents. I met people who's parents had made huge mistakes when raising them and still cared for them! And then there was me in life I didn't find the use of family. I didn't care about them until I lost them, and then I started missing them. People, I had no right to miss because I hadn't given a shit about them! But they cried for me, their lives were changed because I wasn't in them! And I was a selfish little bitch who thought that they had nothing to offer me.  
  
Now, a hundred years later I still missed them, long after they were gone and there was no way to go back. I wanted to tell them that I was sorry, and that I loved them, and I couldn't. Someone had taken that away from me, or maybe I took it away from myself. That's right, it wasn't fate that was against me persay, it was that fate was just giving me the kick in the ass that I had tried to give it! Don't fuck with fate, fate has a way of fucking you up the ass!  
  
Fate had been nice and had given me Mason, for a little while, but I thought that happiness never went away. I had a lot to learn! Happiness comes and goes, but love is forever, and that was something I had with my family, despite what I wanted to believe. They still loved me till the day they died, and I tried to deny my feelings of love, even after I died!   
  
When I got home I went right up to my room. Part of me wanted to send off an email, but then I remembered that Reggie had died forty years ago! I had been alone, except for Colt for the last forty years. I was on my bed, wishing that I had something from everyone that I was thinking about so that I could feel close to them, but I never was that sentimental. I heard a light knock at the door, and knew that it was Colt, who let himself in, and sat down on the bed.  
  
"Hey, George, what's wrong?" he asked.  
  
"Same as always, and I realized I'm stupid," I replied.  
  
He laughed. "What did you do?"  
  
"I got a day job."  
  
"Why?"  
  
I shrugged. "I was outside happy time, and before I knew what was going on I was inside applying for a job."  
  
He laughed. "You're a strange bird George, you know that?"  
  
"I guess I am."  
  
"I can hardly believe the place is still around!"  
  
"I was pretty fucking surprised myself."  
  
We talked for a little while longer, I found that somehow Colt seemed to make things better. I always felt a little less frazzled after talking to him. He was my best friend, and even though I had lost so much I knew that at the end of the day I could get through it as long as I knew that he would be there when I got home. I was glad that I hadn't dated him because of the whole Mason thing, because we would not have had the same relationship, and that was the kind of relationship I needed after loosing so much.   
  
I heard a faint knocking on the door, and then the bell ring. I went downstairs, surprised to find Anika on the doorstep. Not because she didn't come often, but because she never came during the day. She didn't even say anything, and sat down on my couch. She looked pissed off, and really out of whack.  
  
"What's wrong?" I asked, concerned.  
  
"Everything! I'm loosing my best reaper!" she exclaimed.  
  
"The world will go on, it always has when we've lost reapers."  
  
"I've lost reapers before, but not my regular team since I became the team leader!"  
  
"Will you like calm down already. Tell the person, they'll be happy that they are leaving, and then freak out at them about being your best reaper, and the first reaper you've lost on your watch."  
  
"I guess it's a little late for that." She handed me a post-it. "This is your last soul, you collect him at one o'clock tomorrow."  
  
"Fuck!" I looked at the post it. "I hope I'm on lunch then."  
  
"What the hell are you talking about?"  
  
"I just started back at Happy Time."  
  
"What's Happy Time?"  
  
"The place I worked for a half a day when I died the first time, and worked as a day job when I first became a reaper and still had scruples. I call them my pre-Mason days!"  
  
"Well, tomorrow you won't have to worry about all that, you'll take your last soul and finally be able to see what all the fuss about moving on is about."  
  
I laughed. "I can hardly believe that this day is coming."  
  
"Well believe it George, and you've been a reaper a long time, and I don't know what I'm going to do to train a new person without you."  
  
I shrugged. "You'll figure it out, that's why you got the job."  
  
"Well there was a better candidate, I think, but I guess fate liked them a little bit better."  
  
I laughed. "I doubt that fate can hate you more then me."  
  
"Probably not."  
  
It seemed like she was keeping something from me. I think it was one of the longer conversations we had had since she had become team leader. For some reason after she got promoted we just didn't get any closer. It wasn't like she had changed, she just tended to be too busy for us to have girl chats anymore. I missed those days, but soon I would be going on to bigger and better things. I kept looking at the post-it and thinking that there was nothing different about it. But this person. T. Kavindish was going to be a new reaper, and I would be going off into the great unknown.  
  
That night I lay in bed unable to sleeping, thinking about the next day. How it would feel to finally be free of reaper duties. I wanted more then anything to be free of them for a long time, and now that the day was on it's way. I could only think of bad things that could happen to me in the after life. It kept me up a good part of the night. As I was lying in bed listing to the radio a song came on the radio by the same band as Mason and my song. I listened to it, and it really spoke to me.  
  
It's raining in the courtyard of her dreams  
  
Now her machine is dying  
  
Las month it was ripper apart  
  
And fueled on the emptiness that no one cares anymore  
  
No can see through her lies  
  
Don't forget you promised nothing would change without me  
  
Just don't forget you promised it  
  
She's off her leash lost in the seas there's panic all around  
  
The rain will hide her swollen tears and save her from her uslessness  
  
She says don't forget you promised it, nothing would change without proper reason  
  
Time can't do nothing anymore cause time's just a waste and we sit by ourselves and wait for nothing  
  
And she crawls down to her secret underground  
  
She says don't forget you promised it, nothing would change without proper reason  
  
Time can't do nothing anymore cause time's just a waste and we sit by ourselves and wait for nothing  
  
I didn't know who the you was, but for it really touched on my fear of change, as I didn't know what was ahead, and maybe things would change for the worst, rather then the better. It was really great song, and I was glad I had heard it. Shortly after I fell asleep, and I think the song that got stuck in my head, the chorus mostly had helped with that. I knew the song wasn't spirtual or anything, and that the band never would have thought it would mean so much to an undead girl who was finally going to get her chance at moving on, but I was glad I had heard it. I really was going to miss a lot of things this life, or afterlife had to offer.  
  
End   
  
End notes: the first bit has been written for a while… George gets to move on in the next ep stay tuned!!!! 


	29. part 29

TITLE: A Day in the Life of a Grim Reaper; Behind the Cloak and Sickle (Part 29of30)   
  
AUTHOR: trista   
  
DISCLAIMER: George and the concept is not mine, it belongs to MGM, showcase, Ellen Muth, and the creator of the series, the new characters are mine, but I don't think anyone will be borrowing them.  
  
RATING: PG-13 (for language, but the kids these days…)   
  
CONTENT: Reggie/Millie friendship, Mason/George romance   
  
SUMMARY: George's last day tear  
  
AUTHORS NOTES: sorry this took so long, I'm terrible at actually coming out with endings… actually it was the middle that gave me probs, so it's a little shorter then I would have liked it to be. But it still works. There will be another one in Colt's POV which won't be too long, but ties up a few things, and makes the series end at a happy 30 parts instead of 29 cause that would have bugged me. The song used in this one I called The Tragic Ballet (Watching the sun die) by my fave band After the Troops Leave. It is about capitalism bring the end to the world, but I think it also fights as the end of the life. It's not the same without the music, so please, please, please get in touch with me if you want a CD there will be one more song in the next one, and I now know the track list =8-D hopefully Colt's part'll be easier to write! On, at long last with George's taking of her last soul.  
  
It's funny how sometimes the thing you want the most in the world for the longest time isn't what you really want when the time comes to get it. That's how I felt that morning when I woke up, knowing, that it was my last day as a reaper, that I was finally going to move on to whatever it was I was supposed to be moving on to. Maybe it was nerves, or maybe a part of me had just gotten used to my so called afterlife.  
  
I never was one much for change, maybe that's why I didn't adjust well to Reggie not being my baby sister anymore, and why I rebelled so much after high school. I feared change, and I acted like a first class ass in order to try and keep things the way they were. But life was no fun if it was stagnant. People need change in their lives, and that's just the way things are. No matter how much you fight it things in life change, and life was going to not just change for me, but end.   
  
Maybe I had been dead for a while, but it's hard to think that you're dead when you're still interacting with the living. Not to mention living a better life then you ever did while I was alive. It was strange how things worked out sometimes, and I realized that whatever the higher power may be, god, Allah, goddesses, or even just fates, it had a sense of humor which it found quiet stellar, and loved to fuck we the living, and undead. I wondered if they also fucked with the dead. I was going to find out soon enough.   
  
As much as I thought that fate liked to fuck with me I'd miss the afterlife I was leading, I wasn't even sure that real death would be what I wanted. Maybe the rat race would start all over again, and then I had been looking forward to nothing all this time.  
  
It was funny how fate worked, I originally died on my lunch hour from happy time, and how many years later I am shocked to find it's still in existence, and decide to start working again and all of a sudden my first day of work I get my last post-it. I'm not complaining about the reaper gig being over, I just hope that death is as good as being undead.  
  
I got to happy time and truged away at the temp work, filing, they gave me. I was surprised that in all that time office work had not changed. It was just as boring at it ever was, and lunch didn't seem to come fast enough. Maybe time seemed to stand still because I was so looking forward to it being 1:30, and I would finally learn what awaited me in the next life.   
  
It's funny how when you stare at clock when you're bored it seems to stop, but when you're having fun there never seems to be enough time. I hated waiting for things, even as a child I hated waiting. My parents stopped bringing me to fairs because I'd start crying in long lines, and waiting for death is probably the longest wait. Although I suppose that most people don't sit around waiting for death, accept if you're sick because they don't know when they might die.   
  
When I died the first time I certainly hadn't been waiting around for death, save maybe putting a bullet in my brain in hopes of not having to work or deal with my family. I filed away, wondering how it was that a person could devote their whole life to that kind of crap! My hell would be having to do office work the rest of eternity.  
  
I worked away hoping that someone would notice later rather then sooner that I had not had my lunch yet. Even with counting down the minutes I nearly lost track of time. I guess when you're brain is that tired it's hard to think of anything but hitting the pillow. Finally one of the guys in charge, or who thought he was in charge actually came to the basement, more happily known as the file room. He looked at me funny.  
  
"What?" I demanded.  
  
"You just look familiar is all." He looked at my "ask me why my name is" button. "So what's your name cutie?"  
  
"Sasha, and that's sexual harassment."  
  
He shrugged. "Would you really report me, when I come baring the news that you get to go on your lunch hour?"  
  
"Don't you mean thirty five minutes?"  
  
"How'd you know that. My old workplace must have done similar research."  
  
He nodded. "Sometime maybe I could join you for your thirty five minutes."  
  
I shrugged. "Maybe one day." I winked at him and left the building.  
  
I didn't think that it was truly heinous of me to lead him on. Most people don't know when they're going to die, so it wasn't as if he'd be figuring it out anytime soon! When I got out of the building I was surprised to see Colt there. I was a little surprised that Anika wasn't there too but, I wasn't complaining. I would much rather spend my last moments on earth with him then her. I had nothing wrong with her, it was just that Colt was my best friend, and somehow there was still so much I wanted to tell him.  
  
I guess that in all this time I never did get over the teenage mentality that I had all the time in the world. I wanted this whole afterlife thing to be over, but on the other hand I never thought that my afterlife would ever end. Maybe everyone believed that they would never die, and that's why it's so shocking and upsetting to us. We know, logically that everyone is going to die, but a part of us thinks that they will always be there, and that that person, or them-self will be the acceptation to the rules of life, and are upset when they learn they are not.  
  
Who really thinks ahead in life and doesn't see the people they love still there with them at the end of it all? I looked at the post-it, and Colt put his arms around my shoulder, and we walked to a coffee shop right near where whoever was replacing me was to die, or rather become a reaper. It would finally be my turn to move on while they were stuck as a reaper. I was so excited, but scared at the same time.  
  
"So the time has finally come," Colt said, as if reading my mind.  
  
"Yeah," I replied half heartedly.  
  
"How do you feel?"  
  
"Strange, happy but strange. As if there is more here that I should have done. I don't know it's strange. I guess I just think that all the anticipation to it can't live up to the real thing. You know like when you're a kid and you're finally big enough to on this one ride at the fair, and you go on it, and it wasn't half as good as you thought?"   
  
He nodded. "I know what you mean, it's like R rated movies, once you finally can go see them you don't really want to anymore. They just don't seem as good."  
  
"I suppose we just want what we don't have."  
  
He nodded. And we sat there in silence sipping coffee. I could hardly believe it before we had met up there was so much I wanted to say, and now my mind was completely blank! I couldn't think of anything to tell him that hadn't bee said before. I looked at my watch, wondering how much longer the agonizing silence would have to continue. I had almost forgotten to keep an eye out for risk factors outside.   
  
I wondered if my replacement would have a stranger death then yours true. Colt followed me outside, I had almost forgotten that someone had to be there to meet the soul, as I couldn't do it.  
  
"I don't know how you managed seeing everyone you started working with move on while you were left behind."  
  
I shrugged. "You don't really have a choice in the matter, that's just the way it was. But I knew when my turn would be next at least!" I tried to say positively.  
  
"I guess so, but it must have been so hard."  
  
"I may have lost a lot of friends along the way but I always had at least one."   
  
I hugged him, and we simply held each other for a few minutes. Anyone passing by us would have thought we were lovers, anything but just friends, and I didn't care what they thought. A girl and a guy can be just friends, if that's what they both needed. I loved Colt in a way that I had loved no one else, it wasn't because he was family or because we were romantically involved. I loved him because we were friends. I had never loved anyone like that in life, and I was glad to have had a second chance to experience it.   
  
I wanted Colt to go with me, it would have been so much better if Colt was able to go with me. Everything is always easier when you had a friend along, but I knew that that would not be the case. Even if he had wanted to he couldn't. He was much too professional, and would never leave a soul alone.  
  
"I'm going to miss you, Colt," I whispered, before ending the hug.   
  
I had finally learned that there are things in this world that are worth feeling, and that just because you lose someone doesn't mean that your life is over, and you can never experience anything again. I appreciate the time that I had with Colt, he is the person that knows me the best, but I know that everything must come to an end.   
  
After I pulled away I knew which soul was the one who was going to be replacing me. She was Barbie-doll type girl, I hoped that she at least was smart. She tripped over something, and as she fell I took her soul. I couldn't tell you what actually killed her, I was already within my own lightshow.  
  
I finally got see my own lightshow, and it was not exactly what I had been expecting. Standing before me in the most beautiful place I had ever seen was everyone who had ever meant anything to me, and I knew what the first thing I wanted to do to each of them was.   
  
When I saw my mother all I wanted to do was to hug her, and to tell her that I loved her. I had never told her that in life, despite the fact that she never did stop loving me, and showing me that she loved me. I had been too stupid to realize that her loving me was a good thing, something to be proud of. As well as something I missed more then I ever thought possible when I didn't hear it anymore.   
  
When I saw my father I wanted to thank him for being my father, but at the same time I wanted to kick him in the junk for being such a fucking man! My mother was far from perfect but he shouldn't have cheated on her before they were divorced. If he had wanted to cheat he should have gotten divorced first. Even Mason hadn't cheated on me while we were going out, and we weren't even married!  
  
When I saw Betty I simply began to smile, there she was just as I remembered her, with this grin on her face. I still wore after all that time the ring she had given me when she piggy-backed. I was very glad to find out that she had gotten to her destination and doing it a different way hadn't changed her at all.  
  
I was surprised that I didn't see Roxy, but thought that she just wasn't around. I guess we really didn't get along that well, but I didn't really care, because my surrogate sister was there, and I knew that she was going to be telling about all of her misadventures since she moved on.   
  
When I saw Mason I simply wanted to kiss him right there in front of everyone, then drag him to a dark room and fuck him senseless. Then we might talk about how much we missed each other and all that other crap that comes along with being head of heels in love with someone.   
  
I looked back for a moment, and could see Colt talking to the girl, but knew that he couldn't see me, or my lightshow, he had his own thing to do. But he did look sad over losing me, and that made me feel better. I knew that I couldn't go back, no matter how much I may have wanted to. As all this was happening I heard a song in the background, it was a beautiful song, and although the lyrics were a little hard to hear, I thought that it somehow made sense as something to hear when you were talking your steps into the light, which may be the end.  
  
Floating picture of the sea, floating free  
  
Love can save you love can turn you away from me  
  
Gone, my anger inside  
  
Gone, my sadness inside  
  
Dancing far away in to do  
  
Ballet of the moto life, yeah it is  
  
Gone are the midnight waltz  
  
To the center of you  
  
As the days slip through our fingers  
  
Into the aching sands of the desert  
  
We ride tonight into the festival of shadows  
  
Forrest fires, electrical smoke  
  
Through music, panic  
  
Through the desolation of the innocence  
  
We on earth, we humans  
  
We on earth, the violent beating, the crying  
  
We on earth, I am the sun, fire and water  
  
I am smoke, the tragic, the tragic ballet  
  
I know the sun will die, yeah I do  
  
I know the sun will die, yeah I do  
  
But I want to be there...  
  
to see the night painted with fire  
  
I finally looked at Reggie, would we pick things up as George or Millie? I then took a few steps toward them, glad to have them all back in my life. Somehow I knew that death wouldn't be all that different from life, other then you would never have to worry about anyone leaving you again, and horrible things that fate would do. Life was the challenge, and then once it was all over this was the easy part. I couldn't wait to start it. I walked into the light, knowing it was disappearing behind me.  
  
End  
  
Author's notes: Hope it was worth the wait! On with Colt's part. Hugz and kissez trista aka the dustytiger. 


	30. part 30

TITLE: A Day in the Life of a Grim Reaper; Behind the Cloak and Sickle (Part 30of30) AUTHOR: trista DISCLAIMER: George and the concept is not mine, it belongs to MGM, showcase, Ellen Muth, and the creator of the series, the new characters are mine, but I don't think anyone will be borrowing them. RATING: PG-13 (for language, but the kids these days…) CONTENT: Reggie/Millie friendship, Mason/George romance   
  
SUMMARY: Colt ties up some loose ends.  
  
AUTHORS NOTES: all right this is really the end of the series, kind of an epilogue but is called part 30 for the fact that who the hell ends a series at part 29? Funny I never thought I'd have that many parts but here it is… hope you all have liked it. Now that it's over please tell me if you want a CD I will send them to you for two dollars your currency. Contact me at rockchicktristasympatico.ca kay luvs? On with the show!  
  
It was so strange not having George in the house anymore. I felt like such a bum, because it really wasn't my house, and here I was living in it all by myself. Although I logically knew that George had gone on to wherever you go after you're done living. But part of me was still expecting her to come through the door and tell me a great story about the person whose soul she had just taken. How they died, or what they did when they found out that they were dead. I knew it was impossible, but part of me missed it.   
  
Part of me also wanted to tell her how the new girl had died. She was a Barbie doll type who had fallen over her own feet falling on a gagged rock on the side walk, which went through one of the veins in her neck. Everyone was saying how unlikely it was to actually fall like that, but I didn't care about that. I just found it a little too cliché that a blonde had fallen over her own feet. She wasn't even wearing high-heeled shoes, she simply was walking and tripped over herself. When I saw the way she died, and the way she looked I thought I was going to have a lot of fun with the girl. She got up and cursed rather loudly, and I walked over to her. I told her that she was going to be starting her afterlife. She didn't believe me at first, but got it really quickly. After talking with her for half an hour while looking for Anika I discovered that she was one of the smartest people I had ever met. Unfortunately she was also the biggest klutz I had ever come across, which tended to start her very own blonde jokes. When she relaised that she was dead and how she died, she shook her head and said. "Just great, this is going to be the new number one blonde joke, embellished of course! Why is it that brunettes don't do these things!"  
  
I smiled at her, and continued my search of the ever illusive Anika. I had hardly known Rube but knew that he was a much better team leader then Anika. She tended not even to try to help new people. She didn't care as long as the post-its were given out, and there weren't any mistakes. I understood feeling a little malaise because of what you did, but it was getting worse and worse. When I finally did find her she only spoke about two words to Tara. It must be a woman thing because I swear it was only because of the way she looked. The other girl who was a temp refused to even talk to her, but it was her last day, and she was replaced by a guy.   
  
So I was the one who ended up having to show her the ropes. I told her that she could stay at the house, but she said she'd prefer to find her own place. She made a joke about not moving in with a guy she had only knows a few hours. I was kind of glad that she hadn't taken me up on the offer, because that would have meant having someone else in George's room and I wasn't ready for that. I found Drew, and he agreed to show her around, in hopes of finding a place to stay.   
  
While they were off seeing the town I went to see Anika. I was mad at her for being so cold to the new girl, hoping to get an explanation, and even an apology. I got there and knocked on the door. She opened it, and was wearing a black bathrobe, with a towel in her hair. I had to admit I was a little surprised to see her like that. She was also holding a small tub of ice cream in her hand. I remembered that one of my female bandmates had done that when she was dumped, and was not the same for weeks after.  
  
"What brings you here?" she asked.  
  
"I was coming to talk to you about why you were so, well, mean earlier today, but I have an idea why," I replied.   
  
"You don't have a clue, my dear little rock boy."  
  
"Well then, would you like to share your feelings, or would you rather fill your mouth with your ice cream."  
  
"I guess I could talk."   
  
She let me in, and we sat on different couches in the living room.   
  
"So you said you wanted to talk, so talk," I reminded her.  
  
"Don't rush me!"   
  
"Fine then, why don't I ask you questions?"  
  
"Whatever!"  
  
"First, why did you treat Tara like shit, if you had even attempted to get to know her you would have realized she's a pretty nice gal."  
  
"You're a guy it's not the same. You see someone with nice tits and assume that she is nice."  
  
"Actually I was talking to her, looking her face, not her chest thank you very much, and she is really a nice a person. So you should probably apologize to her."  
  
"I guess I could do that, I mean it's not her fault that I'm so upset."  
  
"There's the spirit!"  
  
She tried to laugh. "Look, I don't know if I want to talk to you about this."  
  
"Well, who else do you have that will listen, sometimes talking is the only thing that helps."  
  
"Since when were you a head shrinker?"  
  
I laughed. "I took a course when I was finished high school, it wasn't for me, but I did pick up a few things."  
  
"And here I thought you had always been just Mr. Rockstar boy.""Nope, I took me a long time to decide that the life of a starving artist was for me."  
  
She nodded. "Good to know."  
  
"So what is it that's bugging you anyway?"  
  
She shrugged. "I guess it's just George's moving on."  
  
"It was about time that she did, don't you think."  
  
"I didn't start much later then her, you know?"  
  
"I know, then that means that your time should be up soon."  
  
"I don't think so, we all saw how long Rube was a group leader for."  
  
I nodded. "I understand."  
  
"But it COULD have been me who got their last post-it, you know?"  
  
"How so?"  
  
"Because she was the other choice for group-leader, and I was stupid, and decided to be noble! I could have been with Brook-Lyn, and happy, but instead I wanted to see her happy sooner!"  
  
I took her hand in mine. "Look, if you thought that was the right thing, then you're not the heartless person I was going to accuse you of being. But you that kind of thing doesn't go unrewarded."   
  
"You sound like a man of God!"  
  
I laughed. "Look, all I'm saying is that Rube all but admitted her fucked up bigtime and that's why he was stuck her so long. George, as we all know fucked up big time at first, and she had a pretty long sentence, but you didn't do anything really dumb, so I don't think that you're going to be a reaper for two hundred years. Who knows your replacement as team leader may someone who's already here, or one of the temps could end up being the new team leader for all we know. We don't know anything more then we are told, and we just have to hope for the best."  
  
She nodded. "I guess you're right Colt, you're pretty smart for a starving artist."  
  
I laughed. "I should be getting home, the place isn't going to clean itself now that George is gone." She nodded. "What are you going to do with that big place now that it's all yours?"  
  
"I'm thinking about donating it to a charity, since we're not sure whose name it's under, and the person probably never existed. The charity can then do what they like with it. Make into a home for a family, or a group, or ever auction it to raise money. There are just too many memories there, that I can't deal with, and I want out that."  
  
I had told Anika that a month before, and I was still trying to decide who to donate the place to that was really deserving of it. I saw her differently after that, she had never wanted to be a team leader, she just didn't want George to be the team leader. That's probably why she hardly spoke to her after that, unless when it was nessacary. It must have been really hard to keep that a secret all that time. I felt sorry for her at the same time, because I knew that she really missed Brook-Lyn, and that she had no way to be with her.   
  
Tara all the while had found a really nice place to live in, and had taken to the being a reaper thing very quickly. She was a natural at it, and never broke the rules. I could hardly believe that she had fit in so well, and felt bad for thinking ill of her when I first saw her. It was true that appearances can be deceiving.   
  
I would often find myself thinking of George when I was alone, it was just too strange to not have her around anymore. She had been so nice to me when I first became a reaper and had every reason to not even give a shit. I just hoped that in death, true death she had been reunited with all of the people she cared about. I went to my room and began to play a song that I had heard a few times before I became a reaper, but for some reason took on more meaning after.  
  
Streets littered with houses, of people you've never met  
  
Things you thought you'd remember, but knew that you'd always forget  
  
Memories stripped from the past, the questions that never got asked  
  
Like a broken down car in an old parking lot  
  
Means nothing at all, but it's all that you've got  
  
And the moment is slipping away, the answers you give all equate  
  
It's like all that you do is just, holding, and looming and lost  
  
All of you mistresses left, to save your relationship  
  
To save from time when you slipped into knowing that nothing is going to kill you faster then life  
  
In the end you're just moments away, from the chances you thought you might take  
  
It's like all that you do is just, holding, and looming and lost  
  
And the words you tried hard to say, get caught in the noose that you made  
  
It's like all that you do is just, holding, and looming and lost  
  
In the end you're just moments away, from the chances you thought you might take  
  
It's like all that you do is just, holding, and looming and lost  
  
It's like all that you do is just, holding, and looming and lost  
  
It's like all that you do is just, holding, and looming and lost  
  
All that you are is not, all you always forgot, hold onto what you got   
  
All that you are is not, all you always forgot, hold onto what you got   
  
In the end you're just moments away, from the chances you thought you might take  
  
It's like all that you do is just, holding, and looming and lost  
  
Your street is littered with houses, people that you've never met  
  
Things you thought you'd remember, knew that you'd always forget  
  
All that you are is not, all you always forgot, hold onto what you got   
  
All that you are is not, all you always forgot, hold onto what you got   
  
All that you are is not, all you always forgot, hold onto what you got   
  
It didn't sound the same when I played it, but it was still one of my favourite songs, and it got me through a lot. It was amazing that even though it hadn't made me famous, music had changed me life for the better. I knew that one day I would see George again, and she'd probably be happier then I had ever seen her. Until then I would take everything one day at time, and go about my business, trying to keep on the fringe of life.  
  
the end.   
  
Author's notes: So, that's the end there isn't anymore. Hope you liked it, hoped I answered most of the questions, what wasn't answered was dilberate cause I don't see the series answering everything in the end. Perhaps I will write another series, perhaps I will hang up my hat. Who knows. Later dayz!  
  
Hugz and kissez trista aka the dustytiger 


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